Murmansk Region Governor Andrei Chibis and Gazprom PLC Management Board Chairman Alexei Miller signed the first five-year regional gas supply and gas network expansion program at the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum.

“This is a landmark event for the Murmansk Region: we have signed the first five-year regional gas supply program. This key phase charts specific steps and brings us closer to launching the project ‘on the ground,’ the Murmansk Region Governor noted.

The Murmansk regional gas supply program is a strategically important project for the entire Arctic zone of Russia, he said. After the first gas starts flowing in, the rapidly developing Murmansk Region will receive additional opportunities for economic growth.

Gas supplies for the region will allow residents to streamline their heating expenses, to upgrade thermal power plants and boiler rooms and to cut the regional budget’s fuel purchase allocations. During the first phase, it will become possible to convert 24 regional heat supply facilities to pipeline gas.

According to Gazprom PLC, the planned Volkhov – Murmansk gas pipeline will provide the bulk of all regional gas. The company launched the project earlier this year. Under the program, high-priority offshoots will snake from the Volkhov – Murmansk gas pipeline; gas distribution stations will also be built, and other gas pipelines will either connect local communities or be built inside them.