Considering options: Gazprom boss Alexei Miller
Gazprom may call on state for cash help
Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom is considering asking the state to co-fund its investments in 2009, as it wants them to rise by 12% to a record 920 billion roubles ($32.84 billion), company boss Alexei Miller said.
"We are fully maintaining our plans for 2009 as far as key projects are concerned... We may attract some funds from the state," Reuters quoted Miller as telling reporters.
Gazprom's 2008 investment plan was approved by the state at 821.66 billion roubles, including 531.2 billion roubles for capital spending and 290.46 billion roubles for long-term financial investments.
Around a quarter of next year's investments will go towards projects in the Arctic Yamal peninsula.
"In 2009 we aim to give Yamal around 210 billion roubles, and in the next two years Yamal's share in our overall estimates will rise to one third," Miller said.
Today top Gazprom officials met with the local government in Yamal to launch work on the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta pipeline, which will transport Yamal gas into the single, centralised Russian gas system.
Time frames of potential projects are not yet known, though Gazprom has said it plans to produce the first 15 billion cubic metres of gas in 2011.
For Gazprom, Yamal is its key source of future output as production falls at mature deposits in West Siberia.
Yamal and East Siberia will account for half of its output by 2020.
By 2030, it will produce 360 Bcm annually, twice as much as it currently exports.
"This is the most ambitious energy project in the modern history of Russia... Yamal's rich reserves cannot be underestimated," Russian First Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of Gazprom's board Viktor Zubkov said in a statement.
Gazprom, which supplies Europe with a quarter of its gas needs, regularly revises both its capital expenditure and financial investment needs, sometimes three times a year.
It says projects are getting more expensive because of rising prices for construction materials and services.
It has also regularly revised its needs for long-term financial investments due to aggressive asset acquisitions.
Some analysts have criticised the company for prioritising equity deals over capex, much needed to sustain and increase gas production.
Gazprom's investment programmes must be approved by the state and a further rise in spending might create additional pressure on Russia's already gallopping inflation.
Spending state money on co-funding investment plans could also seem questionable given that the government is preoccuppied with holding on to the billions of dollars it needs to keep the economy afloat, support the rouble and help state-owned giants refinance foreign debts.