YALTA, October 28. /TASS/. The government of the Crimean Republic approved plans on Tuesday for constructing a gas pipeline that will allow full gasification of major resort cities of the Black Sea Peninsula.

The project to build a pipeline connecting the Black Sea cities of Yalta, Foros and Sevastopol was launched 11 years ago. Crimea’s Energy Minister Sergey Yegorov said finishing the construction will demand some $14 million.

The Simferopol-based Chernomornaftogaz oil and gas company extracts around 1 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and the annual gas consumption reaches the same figure. In the midterm, the annual gas extraction in the peninsula may reach 3 billion cubic meters.

Earlier reports said gasification of Crimea could be implemented through building a gas pipeline across the Kerch Strait. The project is evaluated at $1 billion.

The gasification level in Crimea’s rural areas is around 47%.

Earlier, it was reported that Crimea has natural gas reserves of 165.3 billion cubic meters, 47 million tonnes of oil and 18.2 million tonnes of gas condensate.

Crimean territory has 44 hydrocarbon fields, seven gas condensate reservoirs and 10 oil and 27 gas fields. Five gas and three gas condensate fields are located offshore in the Black Sea. Six more gas fields are located in the adjacent Azov Sea.