OREANDA-NEWS. June 24, 2010. The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Valery Shantsev, Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

The parties addressed the progress in implementing the Agreement of Cooperation between Gazprom and the Nizhny Novgorod Government. Special attention was paid to the possibility for the gas supply development in Nizhny Novgorod, Dzerzhinsk, Balakhna, Zavolzhye and Bor, as well as to the regional gasification issues.
Background

The Agreement of Cooperation was signed by Gazprom and the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Government in January 2002 and extended for an indefinite period of time in August 2007. The Accord on Gasification was entered into in October 2006.

Natural gas penetration in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast averages 72.8 per cent including 84.5 per cent in cities and towns and 40.9 per cent in the rural area. The identical indicators throughout Russia stand at 63.2, 67.5 and 45.5 per cent respectively.

In 2009 Gazprom invested RUB 360 million in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast gasification. The funds were used to construct six inter-settlement gas pipelines with the total length of 121.2 kilometers. The Company fully met its obligations under the 2009 schedule related to the Oblast gasification.

The Oblast Government, in its turn, was to construct 94 kilometers of distribution gas pipelines (as of December 31, 2009 the work was completed by 59 per cent, 56 kilometers of gas pipelines were constructed), prepare 2,091 households for gas supply (completed by 25 per cent with 524 households gasified) and to reconstruct four boiler houses (the work has not been done) according to the schedule.

Due to the fact that the Oblast Government failed to meet the obligations assumed in relation to the 2009 gasification process, Gazprom cut the investments in regional gasification down to RUB 10 million. The funds were used to finalize the construction of two inter-settlement gas pipelines.