The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company’s Management Committee and Alexander Zhilkin, Governor of the Astrakhan Oblast.

The parties discussed the current status of and the prospects for cooperation between Gazprom and the Astrakhan Oblast Government within the Agreement of Cooperation and the Accord on Gasification.

Particular attention was paid to the progress with the regional gasification and the plans on developing these activities. The parties addressed the possibility of building a gas-turbine combined heat and power plant at the Astrakhan gas processing plant and of establishing a polyethylene production center based on the Astrakhan gas complex facilities.

Special focus was placed on the necessity to timely and fully pay for the current gas supplies, as well as to clear the arrears accumulated by the Astrakhan Oblast consumers.

Background:

Gazprom and the Astrakhan Oblast Government entered into the Agreement of Cooperation in April 2006 and into the Accord on Gasification in March 2000.

Between 2005 and 2009 Gazprom invested over RUB 1.6 billion in the Astrakhan Oblast gasification. These funds were used to gasify 57 population centers, nearly 7.6 thousand apartments and households, as well as to switch 46 boiler houses to natural gas.

Natural gas penetration in the Astrakhan Oblast reached 74 per cent in 2010 including 84.1 per cent in cities and towns and 7.9 per cent in the rural area. The identical figures throughout Russia average 63.2, 67.5 and 45.5 per cent accordingly.

In 2010 Gazprom committed RUB 200 million for the Astrakhan Oblast gasification. These funds will be used to complete an  inter-settlement gas pipeline and to construct a new one.

The Astrakhan gas complex (AGC) is among the largest ones in Russia. The key facilities of the AGC are the Astrakhan gas and condensate field and the gas processing plant.

The AGC capacities make it possible to annually produce and process up to 12 billion cubic meters of gas and up to 7.3  million tons of hydrocarbon liquids. The AGC turns out a wide range of products such as dry commercial gas, stable gas condensate, sulfur, gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil, liquefied gas and natural gas liquids.