Gazprom seeks resolve problem of excess capacity reserved for peak demand
MOSCOW. April 19 (Interfax) - Almost half of Gazprom's production and transportation capacity is underused due to the seasonal natural of demand for natural gas, the Russian gas giant's deputy CEO, Valery Golubev said at the National Oil and Gas Forum.
He said that independent producers produce gas almost evenly, which gives them high efficiency in field development. Gazprom's share of supplies to the domestic market, however, ranges from 82% to 24% in the course of the year, requiring the creation of reserve capacity, which results in higher costs compared to independent producers.
"Let us be like independent producers. Limit our obligations to this even limit. And put everything else on the exchange. Then we'll find out the actual price of gas," Golubev said.
"Half of production and transportation capacity is underused. These are investments that Gazprom carried and continues to carry," he said.
He said that utilization of gas distribution networks in rural areas now averages 20%. "This is where there is potential to increase supplies," Golubev said.
"Gazprom is now proposing to adopt a network code that would determine all the rules regarding work with networks. We're prepared to discuss this proposal in our exchange committee. We can't build for two years so that everyone makes money on the expert appraisal of this construction, but consumers don't get gas. Right now about 60% of branch gas pipelines are operating at less than 10% of capacity," Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) deputy head Anatoly Golomolzin said.
"We're prepared to take on most of the work in developing the network code," Golubev said.
"Gazprom is now preparing approaches, technical specifications for the network code and will present to us at the exchange committee. I think that within a month. A unified document or set of issues regulating these issues, this is common world practice. This will be a set of government resolutions and legislative acts. This is a question of potential," Golomolzin said.
Speaking about exchange trading, Golomolzin called for lifting legislative restrictions on the amount of gas Gazprom can sell on the exchange. "The restriction [of 17.5 billion cubic meters per year] needs to be lifted. Gazprom can sell more and this is good. We need to lift the requirement for parity," he said.
He also said that FAS has signed a joint order on the sale of mandatory amounts of gas on the exchange and submitted it to the Energy Ministry.