OREANDA-NEWS. Gazpromneft-Aero, operator of the Gazprom Neft aviation refuelling business, has completed its acquisition of a 100-percent holding in Chukotaerosbit LLC, an enterprise involved in aviation refuelling at three complexes throughout the Chukotka Autonomous Region’s most significant airports, located in the cities of Anadyr, Pevek and Keperveyem. This acquisition marks Gazprom Neft’s first asset in Chukotka.

Air transport in the Chukotka Autonomous Region is an essential part of the regional transportation system, with Chukotka’s airports offering regular connections to Moscow, Khabarovsk, Yakutia and Magadan, as well as to regional centres and remote villages, and facilitating the transportation of passengers and freight both within the region and beyond.

Gazprom Neft plans to invest more than RUB114 million rubles in the modernisation of aviation refuelling infrastructure in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug by 2018. The company’s standard and inclusive technology policy is to be implemented throughout the new refuelling facilities, consistent not just with Russian but also international standards on quality control, industrial and environmental safety, and aircraft refuelling processes. Deliveries of aviation fuel to airports in Chukotka will be undertaken from Gazprom Neft’s Omsk Refinery, transported via the Irtysh and Ob rivers and, subsequently, via the Northern Sea Route, to Anadyr and Pevek.

Vladimir Egorov, CEO, Gazpromneft-Aero, commented: “Gazpromneft-Aero’s development strategy is predicated upon expanding the business in those regions with growing volumes of domestic air transport. Economic activity in the Chukotka Autonomous Okruk is showing positive growth — the result of attracting in-bound investment in the mining and extractive industries, together with the development of the Northern Sea Route — which means we can rely on increasing passenger traffic throughout local airports. By making major investments in developing our assets — including, in particular, in refuelling facilities at Anadyr, Pevek and Keperveyem — we are developing modern refuelling infrastructure throughout Russia’s airports.”