Gazprom pipe strengthens supplies to Chechnya

Russian gas supplier Gazprom has launched a pipeline that will improve supplies to the republic of Chechnya including a power plant in Grozny, it said April 7.

This is despite difficulty that Gazprom is having with gas payments from the republic, led by Ramzan Kadyrov. Gazprom has been accused of subsidising the republic for political purposes at the expense of other Russians. But many other regions are also slow to pay up.

Gazprom deputy chairman Vitaly Markelov discussed the debt issue with Chechen prime minister Muslim Khuchiev and the measures that are being taken by the regional government to improve the payment discipline, it said.

The 72-cm, 102-km Mozdok-Grozny pipeline was made using Russian materials and terminates at the Grozny distribution centre that can handle 247,000 m³/hr. 

It is part of the 2021-25 programme agreed with Chechnya and which will see another 13 pipelines built in three districts and three more started this year. Other plans include five gas pipelines to expand the gas infrastructure for consumers in the Groznensky and Kurchaloyevsky Districts and to bring pipeline gas to the highland region of Galanchozhsky, the only district in the Chechen Republic that is not yet covered by the gas grid.

Gazprom has been making large-scale efforts for gas supply and gas infrastructure expansion in the region since 2008 and at the start of the year it had built over 743 km of gas pipelines to which 11,800 houses can be connected.