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News summary for October, 29

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said natural gas supplies to the Asia Pacific Region after 2018 would match or even exceed those to Europe

NOVO OGAREVO —The Russian government will increase funding for science, President Vladimir Putin said and urged business to join in.

“Federal budget funding for civilian sector science has increased substantially over the last 10 years, but we often hear the view and have the idea that there is not enough money for science. This is fair enough. At the same time however, let me draw your attention to a few figures. In 2002, we spent only 31 billion roubles [1 billion U.S. dollars] on science, but we are spending 328 billion roubles on it this year. This is a big difference,” he said on Monday, October 29, at the first meeting of the Council for Science and Education since its membership was changed.

Putin stressed that public sector average wages in research and development have almost tripled over the last 5 years, from 9,700 roubles (320 U.S. dollars) a month in 2006, to 27,869 roubles a month in 2011 which is 21 percent higher than the average wage in the economy as a whole. Of course, it is still not much, but the trend is clear and positive at least.

 

NOVO OGAREVO — President Vladimir Putin said a new centre can be set up in the east of Russia for export of natural gas to the Asia Pacific Region (APR).

Putin met with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller on Monday, October 29, to discuss, among other things, the development of the Eastern Gas Programme that was adopted in 2007.

Two production centres have already been created in Kamchatka and Sakhalin, which supply gas to Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky, Vladivostok and Khabarovsk.

President Vladimir Putin instructed Gazprom to start developing fields and building a gas pipeline in Eastern Siberia within the shortest time possible.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said natural gas supplies to the Asia Pacific Region after 2018 would match or even exceed those to Europe.

Contracts for the supply of Russian gas to APR countries will be signed after 2018 when a new East Siberian gas transportation system becomes operational.

The development of the Chaynda field and the construction of a trunk gas pipeline to Vladivostok will cost 1.2 trillion roubles, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said.

“We can already name investment figures for Chaynda and the trunk gas pipeline,” Miller said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Monday, October 29.

He said “430 billion roubles would be invested in the development of the field and about 770 billion roubles in the construction of the trunk gas pipeline”.

Gazprom will build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Vladivostok in 2018.

The 220 billion rouble plant will make at least 10 million tonnes of LNG a year. “The deadline is 2018,” Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Monday, October 29.

 

NOVO OGAREVO — The Russian government will not abolish pensions for working pensioners, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said.

“There is no such initiative and no such possibility is being considered,” she said on Monday, October 29, thus denying mass media report claiming that the government plans to abolish pensioners for working pensioners.

 

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin will meet with transport experts on Tuesday, October 30, to discuss transport development in Russia.

Russia’s transport industry is made up of about 600,000 organisations and some 10 million commercial means of transportation. It employs more than 4 million people.

 

GORKI —  Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev suggested considering the issue of long-term bank guarantees for the Export Insurance Agency to the tune of 10 billion U.S. dollars.

Speaking at a meeting of VEB’s Supervisory Council on Monday, October 29, Medvedev also called for discussing different forms of support of high-tech exports.

The prime minister expressed confidence that the Export Insurance Agency would become an effective mechanism.

“Support for high-tech products should reach 500 billion roubles by 2014, and the share of non-resource export should grow from 1 to 10 percent,” he said.

 

GORKI — Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev suggested considering the possibility of increasing the charter capital of the Far East Development and Baikal Fund capital by 15 billion roubles and consequently bring it to 100 billion roubles.

“The Fund is now selecting projects, and funding should go mainly to the most effective and best prepared projects,” the prime minister said at a meeting of the Vnesheconombank’s Supervisory Council on Monday, October 29.

 

GORKI — Vnesheconombank (VEB) may open credit line of up to 2.5 billion US dollars for foreign buyers of the aircraft of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 series, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev opening a meeting of the bank’s Supervisory Board on Monday.

 

MOSCOW — Gazprom and Serbia have signed the final investment decision on South Stream.

“A Gazprom delegation led by Leonid Chugunov, head of the Project Management Department, made a working visit to the Republic of Serbia today. A general shareholders’ meeting of South Stream Serbia AG, a joint project company created by Gazprom and Srbijagas, was held during the visit, where the positive final investment decision on the South Stream project was adopted,” Gazprom said in a statement on Monday, October 29.

 

MOSCOW — TNK-BP Holding, which is Russia-operating subsidiary of TNK-BP and which consolidates TNK-BP’s capital assets, decreased net profit calculated under the Russian Accounting Standard (RAS) by 24.4 percent in the first nine months of the year, as compared to the same period of 2011, to stand at 124.282 billion roubles (USD 1 = RUB 31.44), the company said in its report, published on Monday.

In the period under review, the company’s earning went up by 15 percent to make up 780.2 billion roubles, the report underlined, adding that the company’s production cost grew from 452.9 billion roubles to 588.654 billion roubles.

In January-September 2012, the company’s pre-tax profit also decreased by 25.1 percent to 13.264 billion roubles, the document wrote.

 

KIEV — The Central Election Commission has processed 77.77 percent of protocols reflecting ballots cast for candidates who ran on party tickets in the October 28 parliamentary elections.

According to the latest data, the ruling Party of Regions has 32.77 percent of votes, the opposition Batkivshchina party 23.55 percent, the Communist Party 14.23 percent, UDAR 13.29 percent, and Svoboda (9.27 percent).

The faction of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) in the newly elected Verkhovna Rada will not ally with Batkivshchina united opposition association, the UDAR (blow) party headed by Vitaly Klichko, or the Svoboda (freedom) nationalist party, Igor Alexeyev, head of the CPU central electoral headquarters, said Sunday.

Alexeyev made it clear that the Communists elected to the seventh Verkhovna Rada would cooperate with the Party of Regions.