Gazprom Plans to Export 195.6 Billion Cubic Meters of Natural Gas This Year

According to the 2006 company investment plan adopted by Gazprom, it was decided to complete an investment of approximately 310.1 billion rubles (US$11 billion), including 278.42 billion rubles for infrastructure investment and 31.68 billion rubles for long-term financial investment.

Gazprom announced that when preparing the investment planning project, natural gas production in 2006 was set at 548 billion cubic meters. The planned export volume of natural gas in 2006 is 195.6 billion cubic meters, of which 151 billion cubic meters are from non-CIS countries. According to the 2005 summary, Gazprom's total natural gas sales to domestic and foreign consumer groups were 547.9 billion cubic meters, of which 198.5 billion cubic meters were exported, while 147 billion cubic meters were exported to non-CIS countries.

The investment projects prioritized in the Gazprom investment plan of 2006 were gas production (Povanenkov, Harasavy, Yete-Pur, Vega Yashin, Yin-Yasin, Urengoy, Zha Construction of gas fields such as Polyar and Yamburg); construction and transformation of gas transmission capacity (Northern-European gas pipeline, northern Tyumen-Torzhok gas pipeline, Yamal-European gas pipeline, expansion of Urengoy gas transmission hubs and other projects); building underground gas storage capacity; building natural gas processing capacity.

Throughout 2006, there will be 1,231.65 kilometers of main gas transmission lines, branch lines, gas transmission pipelines and 6 compressor stations in underground gas storages, and a comprehensive natural gas processing device will be put into operation, connecting 178 gas wells and 11 underground gas storage production wells. Gas transmission projects are the main priority among infrastructure investments, accounting for approximately 60% of the total investment.