Gazprom's Official Forecasts Shortage of Gas Pipelines

By the year 2010, the shortage of Russian gas transportation capacities will come to 100bn cubic meters, Gazprom Deputy CEO Alexander Ryazanov reported speaking at the international gas forum Gas of Russia 2003. According to him, the company's gas production will begin to grow starting in the year 2007 upon reaching the maximum outputs of the gas fields in the far north region. He also said that the company would need $15bn to $20bn in investments in order to increase gas transportation capacities.

At present, Gazprom's investments in the Russian gas industry amount to RUR200bn (about $64.3bn) a year, while only RUR1bn ($32.1m) is provided by independent gas producers. Ryazanov argued that by the year 2010 the volume of investments from independent gas producers should come to some RUR7bn (about $225m) to maintain production outputs at a required level.

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