OREANDA-NEWS. A working meeting of the group for scientific and technical cooperation between Gazprom and South Korea’s KOGAS took place from December 13 to 15 at the Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta premises.

Taking part in the meeting were employees of Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta, Gazprom VNIIGAZ, IntroScan Technology (Tchaikovsky), KOGAS and Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology. The meeting participants held a roundtable to address the methods of determining the size of stress corrosion cracks during the non-destructive testing of pipes, as well as the joint studies aimed at ensuring the integrity of gas transmission systems in harsh environmental and geotectonic conditions.

“We have come to share our opinions and experience. The key scientific and technical topics of the meeting are the in-line inspection system and gas pipeline design and construction in harsh environmental conditions,” noted Kim Woo Sik, Chief Research Engineer at KOGAS.

The foreign guests visited the production site of workshop No. 6 at the Sosnogorskoye Gas Pipeline Operation Center, made a tour around the Emergency Response and Recovery Center, and got to know the history of Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta in the corporate exhibition complex.

Set up in line with the Cooperation Agreement signed by the companies on May 12, 2003, the working group of Gazprom and the KOGAS gas corporation is composed of three sub-groups focused on several activities.

“In the course of the meeting, we have discussed a lot of issues related to the operation of facilities in the Arctic conditions, as well as the challenges of in-line inspection and new methods and approaches to stress corrosion defects. I have no doubt that our Korean counterparts have found this meeting interesting and useful just as we have,” summed up Igor Sarychev, Head of the Gas Trunkline Operation Division at Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta.

Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom supplying natural gas to consumers in nine regions of northwestern Russia and ensuring gas transit to the CIS and Europe. The gas transmission system operated by the company stretches across Russia’s northwestern areas from the Yamal Peninsula-based Bovanenkovskoye field and Baidaratskaya, the world’s northernmost compressor station, to the country’s western borders.

Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta’s areas of operation cover 15,400 kilometers of gas trunklines. In 2016, the company transmitted 166.9 billion cubic meters of gas.

The company has 24 branches, including 14 gas pipeline operation centers, and 44 compressor stations with 85 compressor workshops. Gas transmission is performed by 417 gas compressors with a total installed capacity of 5,874.6 MW, while gas distribution is handled by 174 gas distribution stations. There are also ten CNG stations in operation.

Gazprom Transgaz Ukhta adopted the ISO 9001:2008 quality management system and the ISO 14001:2004 environmental management system.