The plan stipulates:
— constructing the second string of the Minsk–Vilnius–Kaunas–Kaliningrad gas pipeline within a single technological corridor with the first string with 1.4 billion cubic meters in throughput capacity that has been operated since 1985. The second string stretches 139.2 kilometers.
— building the Kaliningrad UGS facility in order to mitigate daily and seasonal fluctuations in gas consumption as well as to stockpile gas to be used in case of anomalously cold winter spells or emergencies. The first start-up complex of the UGS facility will be brought onstream in late 2009.
— increasing the Krasnoznamenskaya CS capacity to guarantee the projected gas supplies via the Minsk – Vilnius – Kaunas – Kaliningrad gas pipeline.
“The Russian Government entrusted Gazprom with the task to provide the Kaliningrad Oblast with up to 2.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2010. The availability of a two-string gas pipeline and a compressor station near Vilnius that will be commissioned in the next year give us certainty that the task will be fulfilled. The nearly doubled supplies of natural gas will help to boost the economic revival of the Kaliningrad Oblast, promote industrial growth and create workplaces, which is especially significant in the current economic environment. The new gas pipeline will also improve the security of gas supplies to Lithuania and open up new prospects for raising the gasification level and increasing gas supplies to Lithuanian consumers,” stated Valery Golubev, deputy chairman of the Gazprom’s Management Committee.
