Gazprom to expand Bovanenkovo-Ukhta gas pipeline in near future
MOSCOW. June 21 (Interfax) - Gazprom plans to build a third and fourth strand of the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta gas pipeline in the near future, the Russian gas giant's CEO, Alexei Miller said in an interview with television channel Rossiya 24.
"We are continuing the construction of Bovanenkovo-Ukhta, this year we'll continue building the second strand. It's possible to talk about growth of demand for gas in Europe, we're seeing such a trend on the market today - Gazprom increased gas shipments to the European Union market by 7% compared to the same period of last year. In other words, the production capacity that has been created on Yamal - last year we launched the Bovanenkovskoye field - is needed. The volume of production is growing, we are oriented toward our main market - Europe. A need is emerging for new transport capacity, including the second strange of Bovanenkovo-Ukhta. And a third and fourth strand of this trunk gas pipeline could appear in the near future," Miller said.
Gazprom launched the Bovanenkovskoye field, design production capacity of up to 140 billion cubic meters of gas per year, in the fall of 2012. The field has ABC1+C2 reserves of 4.9 trillion cubic meters. A new pipeline system has been built to deliver the field's gas to market - the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta and Ukhta-Torzhok pipelines, running 2,451 km.