Gazprom to increase gas supplies to Russia's Kaliningrad region - governor
KALININGRAD. June 30 (Interfax) - Gazprom will increase supplies of gas to the Kaliningrad region, with the strategic task being to raise supplies to over 3 billion cubic meters per year, Kaliningrad Region Governor Anton Alikhanov said on Telegram.
Information on Gazprom's decision to increase supplies of gas to the region emerged at a meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak at which strengthening the region's energy security was discussed, Alikhanov said.
"The issue of additional gas supply to the region was resolved. All documents will be drawn up in the coming days in line with a list of priority gasification projects earlier coordinated with Gazprom. We should be allocated additional volumes, and this will solve the problem for the moment. But we're continuing strategic work to raise this ceiling of supplies to the region to over 3 bcm per year," he said.
The governor requested an increase in supplies of gas during an online conversation with President Vladimir Putin on May 20.
The technical conditions to connect new facilities to the gas supply network have been suspended in the region, the resources for which enter through a main gas pipeline with a capacity of approximately 3.7 bcm per year that transits through Lithuania, Alikhanov said.
"We only need 3.1 [bcm], more than enough for five to seven years to develop housing and industry. We would ask that an instruction be given for this ceiling to be raised for us. It's currently set at just 2.5 bcm. Moreover, such instructions have already been given. We would like your support here," Alikhanov said to the president.
"And that can be done, that which you've proposed. Supplies of liquefied natural gas can begin to be increased, for instance, all the infrastructure has been created for this. I will absolutely talk to Gazprom on this topic. Get in touch with [Gazprom CEO] Alexei Borisovich [Miller], please, discuss this topic," Putin replied.
The Marshal Vasilevsky Floating Storage Regasification Unit and a regasification terminal off the coast of Kaliningrad are an alternative system of gas supply to the Kaliningrad region in case gas transit through Lithuania is disrupted. Gazprom demonstrated how autonomous gas supply to the region could be carried out with the help of the LNG terminal when it was launched in January 2019 by fully stopping receipt of gas from the transit pipeline through Lithuania.