Gazprom Says Sochi Pipeline On Schedule; Begins Offshore Section

Gazprom is set to constructing the offshore section of the Dzhubga – Lazarevskoye – Sochi gas pipeline in the Black Sea near the city of Tuapse.

Gaprom said construction is being undertaken with the use of the fleet of service vessels comprising, inter alia, the C-Master (operating in medium depth waters) and Bigfoot I (laying pipes in shallow waters) pipe-laying barges. The offshore section is projected to be completed in June 2010.

Overall, the company said, construction of the Dzhubga – Lazarevskoye – Sochi gas pipeline is progressing according to the schedule with 11.8 kilometers of the onshore line pipes have been laid.

Horizontal directional drilling is underway to install the pipeline landfall sections near the city of Tuapse and the Kudepsta settlement, Gazprom said, with identical operations have been completed near the Novomikhailovskoye and Dzhubga settlements.

The Dzhubga – Lazarevskoye – Sochi gas pipeline has been included into the Program approved by the Russian Federation Government and aimed at the construction of Olympic facilities and development of Sochi as a mountain-climatic resort. The pipeline will secure reliable energy supplies to Sochi and to the Olympic facilities under construction, as well as giving a powerful impetus to the gasification advancement in Sochi and the Tuapse District and will considerably cut the energy deficit on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea.

The gas pipeline will stretch 177 kilometers including a 159.5-kilometer offshore section. The pipeline route will run on the Black Sea bottom along the coastal line (around 4.5 kilometers away from the coast) to the Kudepsta gas distribution station near Sochi.