Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin took part in a meeting chaired by Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in the Government House in Moscow on July 24, 2007. The meeting was devoted to the implementation of regional gasification projects in the first half of the year.

Gasification is one of Chelyabinsk Region’s top priority challenges: the region consumes 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, with the consumption levels rising by 2.5 times between 1997 and 2006. Natural gas is now used in all the cities and districts, including even some very remote areas, that is, in 829 settlements out of 1,297.

Last year, the regional government spent 1.149 billion RUR on the construction of 390 kilometers of gas pipelines and introducing gas in 15,000 houses and apartments. This year, over 1.8 billion RUR will be invested in the project as well. This figure includes 1.4 billion RUR that will be contributed from the region’s budget. The money is expected to be spent on putting up 422 kilometers of gas pipelines and providing gas to at least 50,000 apartments and houses.

In addition, Chelyabinsk Region Government keeps working on its agreement with Gazprom. The latter contributed 370 million RUR to put up 150 kilometers of high-pressure pipelines for 13 cities and towns and to convert 12 boiler-houses to gas. The region, it its turn, has promised to spend 553 million RUR to have 5,820 apartments and houses in these towns hooked up.

The pipelines are being constructed ahead of this year’s schedule: the builders have already put up 146 kilometers (97%) out of the 150 kilometers that had been planned.