Christmas and New Year greetings
Esteemed colleagues,
Christmas and New Year – the holidays we all love – are coming. Traditionally, before seeing the New Year in, we see the old year out, summing up its results.
The year 2013 became yet another stage of Gazprom's rapid development. Our Company is steadily advancing in the forefront of the Russian fuel & energy sector. Gazprom's all large-scale projects aimed at creating new gas production centers, building gas pipelines in Russia and abroad, commissioning power generation capacities are being implemented consistently.
In every area of our activities we are aiming for the future, for the long term.
Gazprom continues diversifying supplies of both pipeline gas and LNG. In 2013 the South Stream construction began in Bulgaria and Serbia, proactive work is underway on the LNG plant construction projects in the Baltics and the Far East, commercial gas production started in Vietnam.
In the outgoing year Russia's first subsea production facility was successfully tested in the Kirinskoye field. A new underground gas storage facility – Kaliningradskoye – was brought into operation.
Gazprom was the first Russian energy company to organize and hold the Year of Ecology. It is another convincing evidence of our Company's special attitude to environmental protection. Throughout Russia Gazprom's employees planted hundreds of thousands of trees and bushes, cleared rubbish from thousands of hectares of land, improved dozens of water reservoirs. And that is apart from statutory environmental actions. Taking care of nature has always been and will remain a key element of our Company's strategy.
Another important area of our activities is also explicitly linked to ecology: gasification of Russian regions. This process directly influences the improvement of the environmental situation in Russia. For the second year in a row we have allocated a record amount of investments for gasification purposes. And every day at least one more gasified locality appears in Russia.
Throughout the year we have been consistently performing large-scale work on the conversion of motor vehicles to natural gas. There is no doubt that in the years to come this essential work will lead to a considerable increase in the number of both CNG filling stations and gas powered motor vehicles in Russia.
In the outgoing year Gazprom's all refineries started producing Euro 5 standard gasoline. It happened two years before the deadline set by the Russian Government, and it is another weighty contribution made by Gazprom into bettering the environmental situation.
In the coming year our country will host the Winter Olympics. This event was preceded by tremendous preparations, in which Gazprom was actively engaged. A number of crucial Olympic venues have already been built: Russia's most advanced combined cycle Adler TPP, Russia's first offshore gas pipeline connecting Dzhubga, Lazarevskoye and Sochi, and a Biathlon & Ski Complex. Our employees are taking part in the Olympic Torch Relay. We are proud of directly pertaining to the coming Winter Olympics – the event that will go down in the history of global sports.
Dear friends,
I'd like to thank all the managers and employees of our Company for their great work done this year.
Let the year 2014 be rich in record highs and achievements in all areas. I wish happiness, well-being, robust health and all the best to you and your families!