Gazprom BD approves work to implement EGP.

MOSCOW, February 4 (Itar-Tass) - The Gazprom Board of Directors (BD) on Thursday approved the work being done to implement the Eastern Gas Programme (EGP) for the establishment of a united system in Eastern Siberia and the Far East for the production, transportation, and supply of gas with an eye to a possible export of gas to the markets of China and other Pacific Rim countries, an official in the company's information department has told Itar-Tass at the close of the BD meeting.

The Gazprom official said the Board of Directors assigned the
company's governing board to ensure further work to implement
first-priority projects, such as the construction of a
Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas transportation system (GTS) and
facilities to ensure the intake of gas by the GTS from the Sakhalin-1 and
Sakhalin-2 projects, and the supply of gas to the Kamchatka Peninsula, to
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, in the first place.
The Board of Directors also instructed the governing board to carry on
work to acquire the shares of the Kamchatgazprom Company, and synchronize
dates for putting into operation the Kirin gasfield, including the
establishment of the appropriate shore-based infrastructure, and the
project to build the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok GTS.
The governing board has been also directed to continue geological
prospecting work on the Kirin, East Odopta, and Ayash blocks on the
Sakhalin shelf, in the Western Kamchatka area of subsoil resources, as
well as those in Krasnoyarsk Territory and Irkutsk Region, work to develop
Gazprom's mineral raw material resources in the Republic of Sakha
(Yakutia) and start the construction of a Yakutia-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok
GTS in 2012.
The Gazprom official said the governing board had been also told to
ensure the conduct of the necessary initial project preparation and design
work to establish gas chemical and gas processing plants in the regions of
Eastern Siberia and the Far East, including work in possible cooperation
with foreign partners, make arrangements for further work to develop the
gas market in Russia's East, and carry on work aimed at elaborating
essential support measures which will make it possible to ensure an
effective development of gasfields, as well as the competitiveness of
natural gas and regional output in Eastern Siberia and the Far East.
When discussing this subject, BD members specially pointed out that
the construction of the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok GTS would meet the
gas requirements connected with the holding of an APEC summit in
Vladivostok in 2012.
The EGP had been endorsed in September 2007 by an order issued by the
Russian Ministry of Industry and Energy. Gazprom had been appointed by the
government of the Russian Federation to coordinate activities in
implementation of the programme.
The Gazprom Group in Russia's East currently possesses the right to
use areas of subsoil resources in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Irkutsk
Region, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Chukotka Autonomous Area, on
the shelf of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. The company conducts
geological prospecting in Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk and Kamchatka Territories,
Irkutsk Region, and on the shelf of Sakhalin Island.
In implementation of the EGP, Gazprom is working out options for the
establishment of gas chemical facilities in Eastern Siberia and the Far
East. Gazprom has signed cooperation agreements with eleven out of fifteen
regions of Eastern Siberia and the Far East, and has gas service
installing agreements with nine regions.
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