Thursday, Gazprom Management Committee Chairman Alexey Miller reported to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on the completion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline’s second string laying.
“We have initiated startup and adjustment operations. In September the second string will be filled with buffer gas and in October we will launch commercial gas supplies,” said Alexey Miller .
Speaking about the reduction of transit risks, he noted that after the commissioning of Nord Stream, Ukraine was no longer an exclusive transit country of Russian gas to Europe.
The second string of the gas pipeline was built ahead of schedule.
The siginificance of Russian gas on the European gas market keeps growing. In 2011 the share of Russian gas on this market rose to 27 per cent versus 24 per cent in 2010. At the same time, the issue of extra gas supplies is very crucial for Europe: in the next seven or eight years it will need more than 100 billion cubic meters to be imported additionally.
Alexey Miller stressed that Gazprom was set to start constructing South Stream in December 2012. Commercial supplies via the gas pipeline will be launched in December 2015.
Vladimir Putin noted in the course of the meeting that the exclusiveness in Russian gas transit for some countries was actually in the past, but the significance of the partner countries remained high. In this respect, further interaction with all the Russian partners in gas transit – Ukraine, Belarus and possibly Turkey in the future, should be continued on a mutually beneficial basis.
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, April 23, 2012; Image: Gazprom