Gazprom Neft to supply special bitumen for high volume roads in Moscow
MOSCOW. July 2 (Interfax) - Gazprom Neft will supply Moscow with bitumen materials specially designed for high volume roads under an agreement signed by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and Gazprom Neft CEO Alexander Dyukov.
Gazprom Neft will also supply materials for experimental road segments to test new types of bitumen.
The oil major and Moscow also plan to draft and introduce standards regulating the use of state-of-the-art materials in road construction.
The agreement is for five years and may be extended.
Gazprom Neft increased bitumen sales 20% to 1.8 million tonnes in 2013. Bitumen materials destined for customers in the Central Federal District are produced at the company's Moscow Oil Refinery and its bitumen materials facility in Ryazan.
Gazprom Neft is currently carrying out a project at the Moscow refinery jointly with French Total to produce next-generation polymer-modified bitumens under the G-Way Styrelf brand. The new product is specially designed for roads that handle high traffic volumes.
The quantity of road repairs carried out in Moscow increased several times in recent years, Sobyanin said. Comprehensive measures to eliminate "repair shortcomings" were carried out in 2011-2013. In all repairs were performed on 92.7 million square meters of highways and other roads, three times more than in 2008-2010.
Beginning this year, Moscow has switched to a scheduled cycle of road repairs. The interval between repairs will range from three years for one-of-a-kind roadways - the MKAD beltway, Kutuzovsky and Leningradsky prospects and others - to six years for ordinary streets. A total of 19.6 million square meters of roads will be repaired this year.