Gazprom's experts take trip to Far East

In Khabarovsk Alexander Ananenkov held a meeting to address the progress with constructing the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas transmission system (GTS), as well as the issues of Gazprom's resource base development offshore the Sakhalin Island.
Taking part in the meeting were heads and experts from Gazprom's specialized subdivisions, subsidiaries and contracting companies.
The meeting participants emphasized the strategic importance of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk GTS as the key component of the gas supply and gasification advancement in Russia's Far East. By now, 395 kilometers of the gas pipeline have been welded. Russian companies supplied 597 kilometers of pipes. 11 sections of the GTS are being constructed simultaneously. 4,096 workers and around 1,400 units of heavy-duty equipment are engaged in the trunkline construction. In parallel with the GTS construction, inter-settlement gas pipelines are being built and consumers are being prepared to receive gas in the Primorsky, Khabarovsk Krais and Sakhalin Oblast.
The meeting addressed the progress with developing the Sakhalin III project blocks. In particular, it was pointed out that in 2009, according to the results of the exploratory well drilling, ABC1+C2 gas reserves of the Kirinskoye field had been increased threefold – up to 100 billion cubic meters.
In 2010 geological exploration will be continued: it is projected to drill an exploratory well in the Kirinskoye field and a prospecting well in the Kirinsky block.  Based on the meeting results, Gazprom's specialized subdivisions, subsidiaries and contracting companies were tasked to ensure timely execution of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok GTS project and to further expand the Company’s resource base in Sakhalin.
Gazprom’s group of experts takes regular trips to the Far East. The group is made up of top managers from the Company, its specialized subdivisions, subsidiaries and contracting companies. The trips are primarily oriented at securing timely execution of the projects for shaping the Unified Gas Supply System in eastern Russia based on the Company’s resource base.
InSeptember 2007 the Russian Federation Industry and Energy Ministry’s Order approved the Development Program for an integrated gas production, transportation and supply system in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, taking into account potential gas exports to China and other Asia-Pacific countries (Eastern Gas Program). Gazprom was appointed by the Russian Federation Government as the Program execution coordinator. The new Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yakutia, Kamchatka and Sakhalin gas production centers will be created in Eastern Russia.
The Eastern Gas Program gives priority to the creation and development of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas transmission system (GTS) that will be connected to a gas pipeline from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Construction of the GTS is targeted at developing gas supply to the Khabarovsk Krai and the Sakhalin Oblast, as well as arranging gas deliveries to the Primorsky Krai. The trunkline construction was launched in July 2009, the first start-up complex will be brought onstream in the third quarter of 2011. In parallel, the work is being done to gasify the Sakhalin Oblast including conversion of CHPP-1 to natural gas in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
The 1,350-kilometer first start-up complex of the gas pipeline will have the annual capacity of 6 billion cubic meters. When brought to full capacity, the system will secure transportation of around 47.2 billion cubic meters, with some 30 billion cubic meters delivered from Sakhalin.
The Sakhalin Island shelf and the Yakutian fields will be the main resource base for the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas pipeline.
In July 2009 Gazprom was awarded the subsurface use licenses for the Kirinsky, Vostochno-Odoptinsky and Ayashsky blocks of the Sakhalin III project. So far, geological exploration is underway at the Kirinskoye field (license obtained in 2008).
Discovered in 1992, the Kirinskoye gas and condensate field is located within the Kirinsky block of the Sakhalin III project offshore the Sakhalin Island (Sea of Okhotsk). In 2009, an exploratory well drilling in the Kirinskoye field resulted in an increase in ABC1+C2 reserves from 75.4 to 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas and from 8.6 to 11.4 million tons of gas condensate. The field is slated for commissioning in 2014.