Asia-Pacific-bound gas traffic may reach European levels--Gazprom.

MOSCOW, February 4 (Itar-Tass) - Natural gas supplies to the
Asia-Pacific Region (APR) may reach the European level in future, an
official of the information department of the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom said after a session on gas deliveries to APR countries, chaired by Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller.

"Natural gas deliveries to APR countries are a major guideline of
diversifying natural gas export from Russia," the official said. "The gas
will be exported from the expanding unified gas supply system in Western
Siberia and Eastern Russia. The amount of natural gas supplies may be very
substantial and, eventually, similar in scale to the Europe-bound ones.
Gaining a firmer foothold in APR markets is one of Gazprom's key tasks,"
the information department official said.
"The export of the natural gas within the framework the Eastern Gas
Program will be carried out after providing all domestic consumers with
gas."
According to Miller, "Gazprom's major resources base in Western
Siberia and a future gas production center, which is being in the Republic
of Sakha (Yakutia), will let us met APR countries' demand for Russia's
natural gas."
He said that "to achieve these goals there is no need to attract gas
resources from other eastern regions of Russia, including the Kovytka gas
condensate field in the Irkutsk region."
According to Miller, Gazprom continues the development of industrial
infrastructures in Russia's Far East, which creates good conditions for
eastward gas export.
"After finishing construction of the gas pipeline system
Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok we plan to get down to the construction of
the Yakutia-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline system in 2012. It will allow
us not only to provide southern regions of the Far East with gas, but also
to develop export to APR countries via pipelines or by sea, when gas
liquefying and compressing facilities in the Primorye Territory have been
built."

-0-gor/str