OREANDA-NEWS. March 09, 2011. A group of the Company's experts led by Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee has finished its business trip to the Far East.

Today in Vladivostok during the meeting dedicated to the Company's resource base development in the Far East it was noted that Gazprom carried on implementing the gas supply project in Kamchatka. Fields pre-development in the western part of the Peninsula is underway. Among other things, production wells drilling is ongoing in the Nizhne-Kvakchikskoye field along with the second phase construction of a comprehensive gas treatment unit.

Alexander Ananenkov stressed that implementation of Gazprom's project for gas supply to the Kamchatka Krai will boost regional socioeconomic development.

In order to ensure reliable and long-term gas supply to the region, the Company proceeds with expanding its resource base through the Western Kamchatka shelf. This year Gazprom will launch the exploratory drilling on the Kamchatka shelf.

The meeting also concerned pre-development of the Kirinskoye field which is to become a gas source for the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas transmission system. In 2011 Gazprom is planning to drill two gas production wells in the field and initiate construction of an onshore processing facility (OPF).

Moreover, front-end engineering design development is nearly completed for construction of a 140 kilometer gas pipeline from the OPF to the Sakhalin main compressor station. The pipeline is designed with a view to receive gas not only from the Kirinskoye field, but from other fields of the Kirinsky block within the Sakhalin III project.

Following the meeting results, specific tasks were given to ensure further development of Gazprom's resource base in Eastern Russia.
Background

Gazprom's expert groups take regular trips to the Far East. A group is made up of top managers from the Company, its specialized subdivisions, subsidiaries and contracting agencies. The trips are primarily aimed at securing timely execution of the projects for shaping the Unified Gas Supply System in Eastern Russia on the basis of the Company's resource base.

As part of the Kamchatka Krai gas supply project Gazprom is performing production drilling and pre-development of two fields – Kshukskoye and Nizhne-Kvakchikskoye.

It is planned to reach the design capacity of 175 million cubic meters a year in the Kshukskoye field by 2011. The Nizhne-Kvakchikskoye field commissioning with its design capacity of 575 million cubic meters will allow increasing the total annual gas production capacity on the Peninsula to 750 million cubic meters in 2013 upon the required demand.

In 2010 Gazprom commissioned the Sobolevo – Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky gas trunkline and started gas deliveries to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

CHPP-2 in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky will be the main gas consumer on the Peninsula at the initial stage. In order to provide gas supply to CHPP-2, Gazprom has built a 15 kilometer long two-string inter-settlement gas pipeline from the automated gas distribution station (AGDS) in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to CHPP-2. Further on, the Company is planning to convert CHPP-1 in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to gas and ensure gasification of the Kamchatka Krai settlements located along the gas pipeline route.

The Kirinskoye gas and condensate field is located 28 kilometers off the Sakhalin Island shore in the Sea of Okhotsk (sea depth – 90 meters) within the Kirinsky block of the Sakhalin III project. The ABC1+C2 reserves of the Kirinskoye field amount to 100 billion cubic meters of gas and 11.4 million tons of gas condensate.

In September 2010 as a result geological exploration Gazprom discovered a new field in the Kirinsky block. Between 2010 and 2013 it is projected to perform follow-up exploration and estimation of the field reserves.