Russia to up oil output 2.1%, gas by 1.3% in 2007
Russia plans to increase oil output 2.1% in 2007, year-on-year, to 490 million metric tons, and natural gas production 1.3%, year-on-year, to 665 billion cubic meters, the Industry and Energy Ministry said Thursday according to RIA Novosti.
The ministry said the increase would be achieved by raising production efficiency, and natural gas monopoly Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] plans to invest 529.38 billion rubles (about $20 billion) in production.
Russia pins a great deal of hope on the Nord Stream gas pipeline that Gazprom is building via the Baltic Sea along with German companies as a direct link to consumers in the EU. The ambitious project is expected to cut transit risks.
In 2007, the country will also study ways to diversify oil supplies and will continue the first phase of the project to build the East Siberia-Pacific pipeline, slated to pump up to 1.6 million barrels of crude per day to Russia's Far East, which will then be sent on to China and the Asia-Pacific region.
The project also envisions the construction of pumping stations and an oil terminal on the Pacific Coast.
The government is expected to assess the wisdom of building the Haryaga-Indiga oil pipeline, which was originally seen as part of a larger pipeline to link oil-rich parts of West Siberia to Murmansk, a permanently ice-free port on the Barents Sea, for trans-shipment to Europe and the United States.
The country will also look into the second leg of the Baltic Pipeline System (BTS II). The system supplies Siberian oil to the Primorsk terminal bordering on Finland, for export to Europe and the United States, and is another project designed to lessen Russia's dependence on transit countries, with which bitter disputes have caused brief disruptions in supplies to Western countries in the last two years. Its capacity was raised to 74 million metric tons last year.