Excellent results
April 28, 2022
Published in Gazprom Magazine Issue 4, written by Sergey Pravosudov
Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, answers questions from Gazprom Magazine
- Mr. Markelov, how much gas and liquid hydrocarbons did Gazprom produce in 2021?
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In 2021, gas production across the Gazprom Group totaled 514.8 billion cubic meters, which is an increase of 62.2 billion cubic meters against 2020. This is the best result in the last 13 years. Gas condensate and oil production amounted to 16.3 million tons and 42.9 million tons, respectively.
- What was the maximum daily amount of gas produced by Gazprom last year?
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The maximum daily amounts of gas produced by Gazprom in 2021 in the areas covered by the Unified Gas Supply System (UGSS) were observed on February 19 at 1,481.4 million cubic meters and on December 31 at 1,484.0 million cubic meters.
- What are the production plans for 2022?
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The approved plan for 2022 envisages the production of 494.4 billion cubic meters of gas.
Domestic market
- How much gas did Gazprom sell in the domestic market in 2021?
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In 2021, the Gazprom Group sold 258.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Russian consumers via the Company’s gas supply system, which is an increase of 32.6 billion cubic meters (+14.4 per cent) against 2020.
Growth in natural gas consumption takes place in the context of a recovery in economic activity and demand after the lifting of access restriction and quarantine measures brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as under the influence of the weather factor. The first and fourth quarters of 2021 were marked by prolonged periods of low temperatures, while abnormally high temperatures in the summer months caused heightened power demand for the purposes of air conditioning and cooling. As a result, natural gas consumption went up in the power sector.
- Did you succeed in improving gas payment discipline and reducing overdue debt for gas supplied? Are there prospects for improvement in this regard in the North Caucasus?
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Gazprom makes systematic efforts to improve the payment discipline on the part of domestic consumers. In 2021, we managed to retain consumer payments for gas supplied at the level of 2020.
Consumer payments across the Russian Federation reached 98 per cent of the cost of gas supplied (99.6 per cent excluding the North Caucasus), whereas payments across the North Caucasus stood at 75.2 per cent. In 2020, consumer payments were at 97.9 per cent of the cost of gas supplied for all consumer groups.
Over the course of 2021, the overdue consumer debt fell by RUB 5.9 billion, totaling RUB 172.5 billion. Reductions in debt were observed in 62 regions, which is 12 regions more than in 2020. The biggest reductions were achieved in the Kemerovo, Samara, Moscow and Penza Regions, as well as in the Krasnodar Territory.
The bulk of the overdue debt is still made up of the debt owed by consumers in the North Caucasus Federal District (NCFD) totaling RUB 96.7 billion. It should be noted that payments by consumers in the NCFD grew by 1.8 per cent overall and reached 75.2 per cent. The overdue debt owed by the regions of the NCFD went down by RUB 2.5 billion in total.
We managed to achieve an increase in the level of payments made by private consumers: last year, they reached 91.6 per cent, or 99.7 per cent excluding the North Caucasus. The overdue debt fell by RUB 3.3 billion overall. In 57 regions – which is seven regions more than in 2020 – the debt of private consumers was reduced by RUB 6.9 billion.
The Gazprom Group continues to systematically work towards improving the payment discipline among its consumers. To that end, subscriber bases are being inventoried and updated in the regions. In the course of 2021, the Group performed 14.2 million inspections at the subscribers’ premises, detecting 4.17 million square meters of unregistered heated areas, 48,300 units of unregistered gas-using equipment and 239,500 unregistered residents. As a result, it prevented the “loss” of 173.3 million cubic meters of gas worth RUB 1 billion last year, for which clients were lawfully presented with bills.
Moreover, Gazprom continues to actively pursue claims to recover debt. In 2021, a total of RUB 7.98 billion was recovered from private consumers.
Aiming to ensure that the gas payment procedure is user-friendly, we continue to implement intelligent metering devices and remote payments via the Subscriber Account online service, whose user base added 21.9 per cent in 2021, totaling 5 million subscribers. Payment collection via the online service grew by 45.4 per cent to RUB 9.4 billion.
As for heat suppliers, last year saw overdue receivables go down in 42 regions. The greatest reductions were observed in the Moscow, Kemerovo, Penza and Tambov Regions, as well as in the Chuvash Republic.
Heat suppliers are accumulating debt primarily for the following reasons that remain in place:
- insufficiently high tariffs and norms of heat consumption keep heat suppliers from breaking even;
- property is leased out without repaying gas debts;
- high degree of wear and tear on boiler houses and heating networks leads to excessive losses.
With the aim of reducing the debt of heat suppliers, we continue to sign debt repayment schedules for gas supplied with the regions. In 2021, we had schedules covering 754 entities for the repayment of RUB 34.6 billion.
Also last year, our joint work with the regional authorities led the latter to allocate subsidies in order to cover lost revenues for heat suppliers in the amount of RUB 48.1 billion, an increase of RUB 10.7 billion against 2020.
Public sector entities on every level paid 100 per cent of their bills in 2021, reducing their overdue debt by RUB 102.3 million. This was achieved by aligning the plans for gas supplies and the associated budget expenses.
Power supply companies paid 99 per cent of their bills in 2021, while their overdue debt grew by RUB 5.8 billion. The growth in debt was caused by the termination in July 2021 of the debt restructuring agreement between Tverskaya Generatsiya and Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Tver, as a result of which current debt was reclassified as overdue debt.
As the amount of overdue debt is still quite large, Gazprom actively participates in the efforts for improving the legislation in the area of gas supplies.
- How much are you investing in gas grid expansion in 2022?
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In 2022, it is planned to bring gas to 377 localities and 296 boiler houses as part of Gazprom’s gas supply and gas infrastructure expansion programs in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area
- How is the development of the Yamal Peninsula going? When do you plan to bring the Bovanenkovskoye field to its maximum design capacity and start the development of the Kharasaveyskoye field?
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In the Yamal Peninsula, we have been developing Bovanenkovskoye, a major oil, gas and condensate field, since 2012. It is planned to bring the field to its design capacity in 2025. The launch of production operations at the Kharasaveyskoye gas and condensate field is slated for 2023.
- How much gas and condensate did you produce from Achimov formations in 2021? What are your plans for 2022?
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In 2021, we produced 17 billion cubic meters of gas and 6.9 million tons of gas condensate from Achimov formations.
According to the plan for hydrogen production from Achimov formations, we are going to extract 23.7 billion cubic meters of gas and 9.5 million tons of gas condensate in 2022.
- Please tell us about the development project for the Parusovoye, Severo-Parusovoye and Semakovskoye fields.
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The Gazprom Group and RusGazDobycha are running a joint project to develop the Parusovoye, Severo-Parusovoye and Semakovskoye fields located in the Taz Peninsula within the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area.
The aggregate recoverable gas reserves stipulated in the project total about 443 billion cubic meters, including 324 billion cubic meters for Semakovskoye, 71 billion cubic meters for Severo-Parusovoye, and 48 billion cubic meters for Parusovoye.
As part of the project, it is planned to pre-develop these fields and build the requisite gas transmission infrastructure up to the entry point of the UGSS so as to gradually launch production operations at the fields and bring them to their design production levels.
The pre-development project for the first phase of the Semakovskoye field envisages annual production of 7.5 billion cubic meters of gas, while the next phases (second and third) will be used to raise the output to 14.2 billion cubic meters of gas and maintain it at this level in the medium-term perspective via expanding the well stock and enhancing the capacities for gas treatment and transmission.
In line with the approved action plan, the start of commercial production at Semakovskoye is slated for this year, with the entire output to be fed into Gazprom’s UGSS in the area of the Yamburgskaya CS.
Astrakhan
- How much gas did you produce from the Astrakhanskoye field last year? What are the prospects of its development?
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We produced 8.5 billion cubic meters of gas from the Astrakhanskoye field in 2021. The approved plan for 2022 envisages the output of 11.4 billion cubic meters of gas.
As for prospects, the “Addendum to the engineering design for the Astrakhanskoye field development” recommends as the best option for developing the field to increase annual gas production by 6 billion cubic meters compared to the previously adopted design so as to reach a total production rate of 18 billion cubic meters of gas per year, with the expansion of the output starting in 2027.
Eastern Siberia
- What are your plans for developing the Chayandinskoye field?
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The Chayandinskoye oil, gas and condensate field forms the resource base for the Power of Siberia gas trunkline. In 2019, the field started producing gas.
Currently, start-up and commissioning is underway at the core facilities of the field. We continue to perform production drilling and pre-development of the field, set up clusters of gas wells, lay down gas collection headers, and build power supply facilities and bases for developing and servicing the field.
- When is Gazprom planning to bring other fields of Yakutia into production?
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In addition to Chayandinskoye, Gazprom holds the development licenses for the Verkhnevilyuchanskoye, Srednetyungskoye, Tas-Yuryakhskoye and Sobolokh-Nedzhelinskoye fields in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). At the moment, the resources contained in these fields are considered to be the reserve for future gas supplies to consumers in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Amur Region in the long term as gas production rates go down at the Chayandinskoye and Kovyktinskoye fields.
- Please talk about the development plans for the Kovyktinskoye field.
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Just like Chayandinskoye, Kovyktinskoye is the main asset for supplying gas into the Power of Siberia gas trunkline. According to our plans, Gazprom is going to bring the field onstream in late 2022, with the start of gas supplies slated for 2023.
- When will Power of Siberia reach its design capacity?
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It is planned to bring the Power of Siberia gas trunkline to its design export capacity of 38 billion cubic meters per year for gas supplies to China by 2025 on a step-by-step basis.
- What are the parameters of the projected gas pipeline to China across Mongolia?
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The feasibility study for the Soyuz Vostok gas pipeline project stipulates that the pipeline will run for 962.9 kilometers in Mongolia, with five compressor stations planned.
Processing
- When do you plan to bring the Amur GPP to its design capacity?
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It is planned to bring the Amur GPP to its design capacity in 2025.
- What are the timeframes for upgrading the gas transmission system in order to provide the gas processing complex in Ust-Luga with feedstock?
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In order to provide for ethane-containing gas to be transported separately to the settlement of Ust-Luga, we are taking measures to expand and renovate the gas pipeline system. The measures are aligned with the launch of start-up and commissioning operations at the gas processing complex.