Vladimir Putin: Let us start with the Far East. What is being done to ensure gas supplies to the region?
Igor Sechin: As per your directive of April 11, we held a meeting on measures to ensure reliable gas supplies to the Far East. We have given the necessary assignments to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection and to the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use to step up issuing licenses to Gazprom for the right to use subsoil plots in the region, on the Western Kamchatka shelf, in Koryakia and in other areas. We think one of the elements of this work could be granting the rights to Gazprom to act as operator in terms of royalty and profit share in the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects. All the necessary instructions have been issued. This work will be done in the near future and we will inform you additionally about the results.
Vladimir Putin: What about the work on the pipeline system?
Igor Sechin: Gazprom has already started it. It is working on the project and preparing documents on the land plots together with the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Regional Development, and the Federation members.
Vladimir Putin: When will you finish this work?
Alexei Miller: The Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas pipeline with an annual capacity of 30 billion cu m of gas will be commissioned by the end of 2011.
Vladimir Putin: Will end gas consumers include the region's residents and power facilities?
Alexei Miller: Yes, they will, as well as industrial enterprises.
Igor Sechin: We think this pipeline will also provide the necessary gas amounts for the 2012 APEC summit.
Vladimir Putin: The second question is connected with a definite fall in gas consumption. We must maintain close contacts with our strategic partners, primarily in Central Asia, such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and coordinate all our actions with them. Please, do not forget about this.
Igor Sechin: We are having this work constantly in mind when we are planning the intensification of contacts with the partners in the countries you named. On April 23-24, a Russian delegation will take part in a big conference in Ashkhabad which will discuss ways to ensure reliable gas supplies and gas transit. Within preparations to this conference, we will meet with our Turkmen colleagues. We hope we'll have an opportunity to step up this work.
Vladimir Putin: Fine.