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Building of major LNG plant beginning in Smolensk Region

The capacity of the largest in the European part of Russia complex for liquefaction of natural gas is 21 tonnes per hour or more than 150 tonnes per year

SMOLENSK, April 5 (Itar-Tass) – The ceremonial laying of the capsule to mark the beginning of construction of the largest in the European part of Russia complex for liquefaction of natural gas (LNG) will be held in the Kholme-Zhirkovsky district of the Smolensk Region on Friday, spokesman for the regional administration Ruslan Smashnev told Itar-Tass.

The estimated cost of the complex is almost 10 billion roubles. The capacity is 21 tonnes per hour or more than 150 tonnes per year. The facility’s completion and commissioning is scheduled for 2016. The project is implemented with private, including foreign investment. The main investor of the construction is the Sadkhana-Yar company, with the participation of foreign capital of Italian company NASCO S.r.l. The Italian partners have expressed the desire to participate not only in the development of the production, but also in the creation of infrastructure for LNG transportation and consumption. The further step will be the organisation of the tank farm for its transportation.

According to Smashnev, the development of the production and domestic consumption of LNG in the Smolensk Region should serve as a powerful energy resource base for the industry and agriculture of both the region and the entire Central Federal District (CFD). In addition, LNG production will make it possible to launch in the CFD a program for the transfer of transport, including specialised automotive and agricultural equipment to an environmentally friendly motor fuel type, which has a number of advantages over the usual fuel.

In addition, this project will make it possible to ensure gas supply to remote sparsely populated localities of the Smolensk Region the installation of gas service in which is impractical economically, but is socially needed. In this case, it will be not necessary to create dozens of miles long gas pipelines to the villages, but it would be enough to put a special container and fill it with LNG, which is enough for several months. “Europe works in this energy-intensive sphere by implementing the ‘virtual pipe’ concept and providing, for example, the Alps region, with liquefied gas. This ecologically clean project has a future,” deputy governor of the region Alexander Medvedev is certain.

In addition to the capsule laying ceremony, it is planned to sign between the Smolensk Region, the investing company Sadkhana-Yar and the operator Gas-Oil (subsidiary of Gazprom) a trilateral agreement on the supply of liquefied natural gas for the regional economy sectors.

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