OREANDA-NEWS. The Gazprom headquarters hosted today Press Conference “Gazprom in Eastern Russia. Entry into Asia-Pacific Markets” held on the threshold of the Company’s annual General Shareholders Meeting. Taking part in the Press Conference were Vitaly Markelov and Alexander Medvedev – Deputy Chairmen of the Gazprom Management Committee; Oleg Aksyutin, Dmitry Lyugai and Vsevolod Cherepanov – Members of the Gazprom Management Committee; Pavel Oderov, Department Head, Viktor Timoshilov, Deputy Department Head and Elena Burmistrova, Director General of Gazprom Export.

The Press Conference highlighted that Gazprom carried on large-scale activities in Russia’s East.

The Company is active in developing its resource base in Eastern Siberia and the Far East. The geological exploration is intense offshore the Sakhalin Island, in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Irkutsk Region and the Krasnoyarsk and Kamchatka Territories. Thus, 3D seismic surveys are completed at the Chayandinskoye field, a major one for the Yakutia gas production center; two-thirds of gas reserves are reclassified from C2 (provisionally estimated) to C1 (explored).

Production projects are progressing according to the plan. In particular, this year the construction of the third, fourth and fifth production wells will start at the Kirinskoye field (Sakhalin III), where commercial gas production began in 2014. In addition, three production wells are scheduled for completion at the oil rim of the Chayandinskoye field.

Gazprom develops its gas transmission capacities in parallel with the production projects. The construction of Power of Siberia’s priority section – from the Chayandinskoye field to Lensk – is underway; the Lensk – Blagoveshchensk section is nearing completion.

A big center for advanced hydrocarbon processing is now shaping up in the Amur Region. In 2015 Gazprom will launch Phase 1 of the Amur Gas Processing Plant (GPP) construction to extract valuable components, such as helium, from natural gas delivered by the Yakutia and Irkutsk gas production centers. The Amur GPP will be among the major ones of such a kind in Russia.

In the market diversification sector Gazprom pays special attention to expanding its business into Asia-Pacific. The project on supplying Russian pipeline gas to receptive and growing Chinese market via the eastern route is moving ahead. The talks on pre-contractual activities regarding the sale and purchase of gas to China via the western route are in full swing.

The Press Conference also touched upon other issues linked to Gazprom’s activities in Russia’s East and Asia-Pacific.