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Ukrtransgaz to spend $111 mln to prepare Ukraine’s GTS for heating season

The company plans to carry out 31 large-scale operations to upgrade gas trunk lines, compressor and gas-distribution stations and underground gas storage facilities

KIEV, July 16 (Itar-Tass) - The Ukrtransgaz, operator of the republican gas transportation system (GTS), will spend about 888 million hryvni (111 million U.S. dollars) in order to prepare the Ukrainian GTS for undisrupted natural gas supplies in the heating season of 2013/2014, the company’s press service said on Tuesday.

This year’s financing of the appropriate works will go up by 66 percent, or by 400 million hryvni (50 million U.S. dollars), as compared to 2012, the press service said.

The company plans to carry out 31 large-scale operations to upgrade gas trunk lines, compressor and gas-distribution stations and underground gas storage facilities, the press service said.

The set of measures will make it possible to get the national GTS ready for undisrupted gas supplies to both consumers inside the republic and importer countries, the Ukrtransgaz press service said.

According to Head of the company’s Board Sergei Vinokurov, owing to the scheduled maintenance, there were no breakdowns or failures in the gas pumping in the system over the past three years. “The company fulfils all requests for gas transportation through the GTS fully and properly,” the press service quoted Vinokurov as saying.

Ukrtransgaz is a subsidiary of the national oil and gas utility Naftogaz Ukrainy. It specializes in the transportation and storage of natural gas. The state holds a 100 percent stake in the company, which consists of 16 structural units enjoying the rights of branch offices. The company’s industrial facilities are located in all of Ukraine’s regions. The company operates gas pipelines of 38,600 kilometers. Ukrtransgaz owns one of Europe’s biggest networks of underground storage facilities with an overall capacity of 31 billion cubic meters.

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