OREANDA-NEWS. On the threshold of Gazprom’s annual General Shareholders Meeting the Company’s headquarters hosted today Press Conference “Mineral and Raw Material Base Development. Gas Production. Gas Transmission System Development”. Taking part in the Press Conference were Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee, Gazprom; Members of the Gazprom Management Committee: Oleg Aksyutin, Dmitry Lyugai, Sergey Prozorov and Vsevolod Cherepanov.

It was pointed out at the Press Conference that Gazprom owned an extensive resource base. As of December 31, 2014 Gazprom’s A+B+C1 explored natural gas reserves (Russian classification) amounted to 36.07 trillion cubic meters representing 72 per cent of the Russian or nearly 17 per cent of the global reserves.

The Company consistently and successfully develops its resource base. In particular, in 2014 the gas reserves replenishment level totaled 822.5 billion cubic meters and the gas replenishment to extraction ratio stood at 1.86.

These efforts will be continued in 2015 with a focus on the operations in the Russian continental shelf. It is planned to perform 3D seismic surveys of about ten thousand square kilometers in the Barents and Kara Seas as well as to drill two exploratory wells in the Yuzhno-Kirinskoye field in the Sea of Okhotsk.

Last year Gazprom produced 443.9 billion cubic meters of gas. In 2015 gas production is expected to reach 450 billion cubic meters. All in all, the Company’s production potential exceeds 600 billion cubic meters of gas a year.

Gazprom advances the gas transmission system (GTS) in Russia. Last year the GTS was extended from 168.9 to 170.7 thousand kilometers.

The Company continues constructing strategic gas pipelines. 16 linear sections with the total length of 696.48 kilometers came onstream in 2014 as part of constructing the second string of the Bovanenkovo – Ukhta gas trunkline system. In addition, 472 kilometers of the linear section were built and made available for gas transmission within Phase 1 of the Southern Corridor project (western route, the Pisarevka – Anapa section). Presently about 15 kilometers of the Power of Siberia gas trunkline has been welded at the section from the Chayandinskoye field to Lensk.

In 2014 Gazprom was actively expanding its underground gas storage (UGS) capacities in Russia. Their potential deliverability by the 2014/2015 autumn-winter period was boosted to the record level: the maximum daily deliverability by the beginning of a withdrawal season was increased to 770.4 million cubic meters of gas, which is 42.6 million cubic meters more than in 2013/2014.

The Press Conference also addressed other issues of the Company’s operating activities.