GORKI, December 10 (Itar-Tass) — The Russian government at its next meeting will consider a draft state program for the development of the North Caucasus Federal District for the period until 2025, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting on the development of the fuel and energy complex of the North Caucasus Federal District on Monday.
The RF Cabinet head noted that “historically the region has been an oil production centre however, in recent years the oil production volumes are falling because the main deposits are depleted.” Medvedev also said that important, including transnational pipelines, such as the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline and the Baku-Makhachkala-Novorossiysk pipeline run through the district’s territory.
The North Caucasian Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. It is located in the extreme southwest of Russia, in the geographical area of the North Caucasus. The federal district was split from Southern Federal District on January 19, 2010. The population of the federal subjects comprising the federal district was 9,428,826 according to the 2010 Census, living on an area of 170,700 square kilometres. The current RF presidential envoy to the district is Alexander Khloponin.
The RF prime minister drew the attention of the meeting participants to the fact that within the framework of Gazprom’s gas service installation program, about 11 billion roubles have been invested in the region over the past 6 years for the development of the local gas network. “The average level of the gas supply provision has reached nearly 90 percent – it is in fact an unprecedented figure, if we look at the situation in other places – there is no region with the same level of gas supply provision as in the Caucasus republics,” he stressed. Medvedev believes that it is good, because “it created the basis for the settlement of social problems, as well as for the development of the manufacturing industry.”