Far East Gas Pipeline Network Takes Shape – Gazprom

KHABAROVSK. Sept 30 (Interfax) – A system of trunk gas pipelines in Russia’s Far East and Yakutia to deliver gas to local consumers and eventually abroad is taking shape.

The Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok trunk gas pipeline will be start to operate on a commercial basis in the third quarter of 2011, Alexander Ananenkov, deputy chief executive of Gazprom (RTS: GAZP), said at the Third Far Eastern Economic Forum in Khabarovsk.

“The pipeline will transport gas from the Sakhalin fields to Khabarovsk, the Primorye territory and Jewish Autonomous District and, in time, for export once the resource base on the Sakhalin shelf has been developed,” Ananenkov said.

Ananenkov said a justification of investment (JoI) and the main technical solutions had been drafted, and designs were under way. The authorities in the regions concerned have agreed on the pipeline’s route. Work on the full set of designs and projections should be wrapped up in the first quarter of 2009.

“Gazprom plans to invest more than 30 billion rubles in this gas transmission system in 2009, more than 100 billion rubles in 2010 and up to 100 billion rubles in 2011. Eleven contractors have been identified,” he said.

Gas will initially be supplied from existing Sakhalin projects, such as Sakhalin-1, for which Gazprom is prepared to continue negotiations with the project operator, he said. The pipeline should be fully utilized when gas from the Sakhalin-3 project comes on stream, expected in 2015-2016. The pipeline will eventually transport gas produced at the Chayanda field in Yakutia, he said.

Work on the Yakutia – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok trunk pipeline should begin in 2010, Ananenkov said.

The Chayanda field will be developed in tandem with the construction of the trunk pipeline and a gas treatment plant, which will separate and store helium. This will form the basis of the Yakutia Gas Production Center, he said. Design and survey work related to the treatment and storage plants should begin in 2009.

The JoI for this project and preparations to conduct further exploration at Chayanda should be completed this year. Designs should get under way in 2009 and construction should start in 2010. The first stage of the field should be ready in 2016.

A long stretch of the gas pipeline will be routed along the same corridor as the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline and it will in time be linked to the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas pipeline, Ananenkov said.

“So the Yakutia gas will reach not only the southern districts of the Far Eastern Federal District but will also be exported,” he said.

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