The Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom Alexey Miller and the Head of Arkhangelsk Oblast Administration Nikolai Kiselev have signed a five-year long agreement on cooperation in Gazprom’s Headquarters today.

The agreement provides for further development of cooperation between Gazprom the Arkhangelsk oblast in the following key spheres:

• construction of the Northern Regions of the Tyumen Oblast (NRTO) – Torzhok gas main as well as that of the branch lines to Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk, Mirny (Plesetsk space launching site) and other cities and settlements of the Arkhangelsk oblast;
• construction of the facilities and manufacture of the equipment intended for hydrocarbon fields development at the Northern seas offshore;
• geological survey for natural gas and liquid hydrocarbon fields;
• gas supply system development in the oblast;
• development and upgrading of the secure gas supply system;
• energy saving technologies’ development and implementation;
• creation of a unified automated gas flow metering system and natural gas properties identification system on the basis of the existing flow metering runs of the gas transmission, gas distributing, industrial and municipal enterprises.

The oblast administration will ensure timely and complete compensation for the costs of granting discounts to certain population categories under the law in force. Annual budgets of the oblast will provide for expense items intended for payment for gas consumed by the budgetary organizations and payment of a debt for previously delivered gas.

In its turn, Gazprom pledges itself to provide for secure natural gas supply to the customers in the oblast, independent suppliers inclusive, taking into account industrial capacity of the Unified gas supply system, as well as the demand financial soundness and the level of the consumers’ payments.

Reference:

Initial 5-year long Agreement on cooperation between OAO Gazprom and the Oblast of Arkhangelsk was signed in April, 1999.

The Arkhangelsk oblast is an important partner of Gazprom in terms of the NRTO-Torzhok gas main construction. The total length of the pipeline is about 1.6 thousand km, including 212 km in the territory of the oblast. The pipeline construction is carried out in accordance with the plan of priority gas transmission facilities’ commissioning synchronization in order to secure Gazprom export gas deliveries in 2002-2006.

The work on construction of the Nyuksenitsa – Arkhangelsk is under way. Funding of the pipeline construction is stipulated by Gazprom’s long-term investment program in the amount of RR 350 million. Construction will be completed within the frames of the agreement on cooperation with the oblast administration.

Gazprom delivered over 1 bcm of natural gas to the oblast consumers last year, which is 101.6% of the planned values. This year the delivery volumes will be maintained at approximately the same level.

The level of payments for current gas supplies in the region amounts to 98.5% in 2004. The consumers’ 9-months indebtedness for the gas supply reduced by more than RR 4.3 million and as of 01.09.04 amounts to RR 6.33 million.

The gas supply development level in the Arkhangelsk oblast is 8.8% (average for Russia – 52.7%).

One of the key objectives in cooperation between Gazprom and the Arkhangelsk oblast in the sphere of manufacture of the equipment for development of the Northern seas’ offshore is construction of the Prirazlomnaya ice-resistant stationary offshore platform.

In order to provide for exploration and production well drilling to the depths of 6500 m at the Arctic seas’ bottom depth of 7-100 m, the Arcticheskaya self-propelled floating drilling vessel is currently being designed; the drilling unit will ensure drilling of 12 wells at a single anchoring site. Building of the platform is carried has been carried out at the FGPU Zvezdochka since 1995.

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