Putin tells Gazprom to start building Chayanda - Vladivostok pipeline ASAP
NOVO-OGAREVO. Oct 29 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin asked Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller to ensure that work on the trunk gas pipeline from the Chayanda field in the Irkutsk region to Vladivostok begins as quickly as possible.
"As the result of a meeting, the president asked Gazprom to finalize all issues and begin construction as quickly as possible," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters after the meeting.
Gazprom's Miller said at the meeting, which was devoted to the Eastern Gas Program, that the pipeline would be built by the end of 2017 and would cost 770 billion rubles.
"As for the trunk pipeline, we think it might be ready by the end of 2017," he said.
The field itself could cost 430 billion rubles to equip, he said.
"430 billion rubles is what it will cost to equip the field and 770 billion rubles to create the trunk pipeline system," he said.
The pipeline will pass from Chayanda via Yakutia to Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, he said.
Miller said a name had to be given to the pipeline system. "Announce a competition over the Internet," President Putin said.
The field will help form a unified gas supply system throughout Russia, Miller said.
"It enables gas to be supplied from the Irkutsk gas production center to the west towards Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk. Thus, we plan to link East Siberia with West [Siberia], he said.
"So we'll have a unified gas supply system," he said.
"One gas supply system for the whole of Russia," Miller said.