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Gazprom’s gas production and transmission facilities ready for winter

Salekhard hosted today a joint meeting of Gazprom and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YaNAO) Government regarding the readiness of the Company's gas production and transmission subsidiaries to supply natural gas to Russian consumers during the autumn/winter period of 2011–2012. The meeting was headed by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Dmitry Kobylkin, Governor of the YaNAO.

Alexey Miller

It was noted that Gazprom had taken great efforts to prepare gas production and transmission facilities for winter operation. The scheduled overhaul and retrofitting of production wells, gas pipelines as well as process equipment of comprehensive gas treatment units and compressor stations had been completed. In particular, more than 2,500 kilometers of gas trunklines have been overhauled in 2011 that is higher than in 2010 (2,427 kilometers).

At meeting

As a result of the efforts aimed at raising the reliability of various types of main process equipment, the gas compressor units' mean time between failures (operation time between repairs) totaled 10,350 hours this year which is 36 per cent more versus the previous year.

In a peak load period Gazprom is ready to provide daily gas production at 1,630 million cubic meters, while 90 per cent of the load will fall on gas fields located in the YaNAO. It was mentioned in this regard that in 2011 the Company had put into operation new gas production capacities in the Okrug, in particular, new wells in the Achimov deposits of the Urengoyskoye field and additional booster compressor capacities at the Vyngaiakhinskoye and Yety-Purovskoye fields. Another 100 wells and booster compressor capacities are expected to be commissioned at the Urengoyskoye and Komsomolskoye fields before the year end. Besides, it is planned to start gas production from the Nyda area in the Medvezhye field (design capacity – 2 billion cubic meters of gas per annum) this December.

“In the short term the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug will remain the largest gas production region of Russia, with the Yamal Peninsula's fields gaining more importance.

The very next year we will launch gas production in Yamal, and we will do this ahead of schedule – a decision has been made to put the Bovanenkovo field onstream in June instead of the third quarter as was previously planned,” said Alexey Miller.

It was underlined that in order to maintain a high reliability of the gas transmission system and to ensure uninterrupted gas supplies during the autumn/winter period of 2011–2012 Gazprom, inter alia, had increased the productivity of underground gas storage (UGS) facilities to the record high level. In the beginning of the withdrawal season up to 647.7 million cubic meters of gas may be daily delivered to consumers from UGS facilities, in December-February – the average of 522.1 million cubic meters per day. By the beginning of the withdrawal season the operating gas reserve of 65.2 billion cubic meters (1.2 billion cubic meters more than last year) has been accumulated in UGS facilities – the maximum amount in the history of the domestic gas industry.

The meeting participants were informed about Gazprom's energy facilities readiness in the YaNAO. All boiler houses involved in heat supply to the social sector and population of the Autonomous Okrug are operational. Besides, the actions to increase the reliability and efficiency of energy supply to the Pangody settlement are underway. It is scheduled to build two block-modular automated boiler houses in the settlement next year.

It was stressed that the necessary backup fuel reserves had been created at power generating facilities and large industrial enterprises of the YaNAO. Fuel oil and coal can be used in case Schedule 1 comes into force during abnormally low temperatures in order to save certain amounts of natural gas for the use by the population and utility sectors.

Based on the meeting results, Gazprom's subsidiary companies operating in the YaNAO were tasked to ensure uninterrupted gas supplies to Russian consumers during the autumn/winter period of 2011–2012.