As noted by the chairman of the commission, head of the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Aisen Nikolaev, natural gas is the most economical and environmentally friendly fuel for power supply to homes and boiler plants, as well as for use in transportation. But if you look more broadly, energy is one of the necessary conditions to strengthen the country’s technological sovereignty.
“For several regions, especially Siberia and the Far East, some northwestern regions and others, gasification is the most popular and desirable government project,” Aisen Nikolaev emphasized. “It will provide energy to energy-deficient areas, implement large investment projects in the regions and lay the foundation for the social and environmental well-being of the people.”
Currently, gasification is underway in 72 regions of the Russian Federation. The program for the development of gas supply and gasification, drawn up for the period from 2021 to 2025, provides for the creation of opportunities for gasification of more than half a million homes and apartments, more than three thousand boiler rooms and industrial enterprises. It should be noted that we are not just talking about populated areas served by existing or already designed gas pipelines. In the absence of gas transportation infrastructure to organize network gas supply, there are options for autonomous gasification using liquefied natural gas (LNG). For example, roadmaps for the development of gas supply and gasification for the Jewish Autonomous Region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory have already been drawn up.
Yakutia ranks first among the regions of the Far Eastern Federal District and is in the TOP 10 for the implementation of the social gasification program. By 2025, almost 300 kilometers of new gas pipelines should appear in the Lensky, Neryungrinsky, Olekminsky region and other regions of the republic. To date, 108 settlements have been gasified in Yakutia; Since 2021, more than 7.2 thousand homes have been connected to gas within the framework of the current regional program, the regional government reported. The plan is to supply this eco-friendly fuel to another 85 towns and cities. In addition, projects are being implemented for the construction of several generation facilities using gas: the Novolenskaya NPP and the Yuzhno-Yakutskaya NPP.
“This year, another two thousand residential buildings will receive gas,” Aisen Nikolaev said after a meeting of the State Council commission, “and the number of gas pipeline connections will be even greater.” In the future we will implement this program as long as there are people willing to connect the gas, we have that opportunity.
By the way, the gas launch ceremony in one of the Yakut villages took place right on the site of the St. Petersburg Gas Forum. In August, in the village of Khatyly, Churapcha district, the construction of the third stage of the intra-village gas network with a length of 13 kilometers was completed, which allows connecting more than 160 houses.
The current regional gasification program will end next year. However, on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, work has already begun on an updated energy strategy of the Russian Federation until 2050, which will establish priorities for the long-term development of the national fuel and energy complex, and gasification will occupy an important place in it. Meanwhile, Gazprom, together with the Cabinet of Ministers, was instructed to prepare a ten-year plan that will take into account both large-scale plans for gasification of Russian regions and increased gas processing within the country. According to the head of Yakutia, the existence of such a plan will allow the regions to develop investment projects in their territories in more detail, including the development of cities and regions, the construction of gas stations and work to attract new investors.
Another important issue addressed at the meeting of the Energy Commission of the State Council was the transfer of transportation to gas motor fuel. Aysen Nikolaev noted that the mass transition to more environmentally friendly fuels and lubricants is hampered by the lack of filling stations, especially in the regions, and proposed increasing state investments in the opening of new stations, as well as strengthening the business support for industrial transition. , passengers and other types of transport to diesel.
At the Gas Forum, their new gas-powered products were presented by the Gorky Automobile Plant, which manufactured two models of specialized vehicles for the maintenance of gas installations, and AMK Standard LLC, which produces construction equipment; They already have samples of a backhoe and a large excavator and also a model of a tracked dozer. In Yakutia, a pilot project to convert quarry equipment to LNG is being developed by gold mining company JSC Polyus Aldan, which also intends to convert its boiler rooms to LNG. The corresponding cooperation agreement at SPIGF was signed by Gazprom Heliy Service LLC and UK Polyus LLC.
In the future, Yakutia will be able to supply itself with gas. Now the republic ranks fifth in Russia in oil and gas production. A trilateral investment agreement was signed at the SPIGF for the geological exploration of two more authorized oil and gas areas in Yakutia: Ulugursky and Ergedzheysky.
– The agreement is the result of great work to implement the study and development project of these promising licensed areas, which laid the foundation for their practical implementation. The project has great socio-economic potential in terms of creating new jobs and increasing additional tax contributions to budgets at various levels,” underlined the head of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolaev.
