Gazprom accomplished connection of the Dzhubga – Lazarevskoye – Sochi gas pipeline offshore and onshore sections. The Bigfoot 1 pipe-laying vessel performed a tie-in operation (welding two sections of the pipeline) near the Kudepsta settlement. The same operations were previously performed near the town of Tuapse, settlements of Dzhubga and Novomikhailovsky.

The Tuapse – Kudepsta section of the gas pipeline will be tested in the second half of 2011 (the Dzhubga – Tuapse section has already been tested) including landfalls.

The Dzhubga – Lazarevskoye – Sochi gas pipeline construction and test supply of gas to the automated gas distribution station in Kudepsta are scheduled for this July.

Background

The Dzhubga – Lazarevskoye – Sochi gas pipeline has been included into the Program approved by the Russian Federation Government and aimed at construction of the Olympic facilities and development of Sochi as a mountain-climatic resort.

The gas pipeline will help achieve the following objectives:

secure reliable energy supplies to the Winter Olympic Games host city and deliver gas to the Olympic venues;

give a powerful impetus to the gasification advancement in the city of Sochi and the Tuapse District, which is of great importance for improving the living standards and developing the resort industry in these regions;

considerably cut the energy deficit in the resort area on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea.

The gas pipeline will stretch 177 kilometers including a 159.5-kilometer offshore section. The pipeline route runs on the Black Sea bottom along the coastal line (around 4.5 kilometers away from the coast) to the Kudepsta gas distribution station near Sochi.

The gas pipeline landfalls are located near Dzhubga, Novomikhailovsky, Tuapse and Kudepsta population centers. The Dzhubga-1, Dzhubga-2, Novomikhailovskaya and Tuapse automated gas distribution stations have been constructed.

The 530-millimeter gas pipeline will have the annual throughput capacity of some 3.8 billion cubic meters.

The pipeline construction was launched in September 2009. It is being carried out in a most climatically attractive and, therefore, the most cherished region of the country, the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea. In this context, Gazprom pays great attention to the environmental activities to be taken during the pipeline construction.