All of the supply in the world won’t do you much good if you can’t deliver it to paying customers. With much of Europe reliant on natural gas from Russia’s state run monopoly, Asia is the next logical area for expansion.

Gazprom, the world’s largest gas company, this summer embarked on an ambitious project to build a new pipeline stretching from the gas-rich island of Sakhalin to Khabarovsk and onward to Vladivostok on the Pacific Coast. The project will energise development in Eastern Siberia and Russia’s Far East, boosting regional economies and delivering Russian gas to Asian markets.

The first section of the pipeline to be launched will be 1,350 km long with an annual capacity of 6 bn cubic metres. The pipeline’s total planned length is approx. 1,800 km, and the pipeline will carry up to 30 bn cubic metres of gas annually. This year 50 bn roubles will be spent on construction; figures for 2010 and 2011 are yet to be released, but total costs are estimated at approximately 150 bn roubles. (Russia Beyond the Headlines)

Share This