Gazprom Needs to Reconstruct Gas Transportation System

A shortage in financing the repair and reconstruction of old gas transportation facilities of Gazprom may lead to an 10-percent loss in production capacity of the company in the next 5-8 years, Vladimir Rezunenko, member of the executive board of the gas holding, declared at the conference 'Oil and Gas. State interests and international corporation' today. According to him, there is a necessity for serious reconstruction of the whole gas transportation system of Gazprom. However, due to low gas transportation tariffs, the company cannot allocate enough funds to carry out this work, which may result in considerable production losses, he specified.

According to Rezunenko, gas transportation tariffs should be by four to eight times higher than the current rates that are from $10 to $16 for every 1,000 cubic meters. World gas transportation rates are some $100-110 for every 1,000 cubic meters. He also noted that Russia needed to organize the market of natural gas for the development of the gas industry. Among promising Gazprom projects he mentioned the Zapolyarye-Urengoy, Yamal-Europe, Russia-Turkey pipelines and the construction of the North-Eurasian gas pipeline.

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