Just on the eve of leaving the Ministry of Energy, Novak makes a beautiful gesture, a kind of "thank you" to those who supported him. A reversal towards Gazprom was the recognition of the need to find additional sources of financing for gasification of the regions. And the responsibility for the result will be completely transferred to the governors.
All this is very useful for Alexey Miller's company, since now the monopolist is not doing well: gas prices were at record low until autumn, Turkey almost stopped supplies altogether, preferring fuel from Azerbaijan, Poland issued a fine of 6.5 billion euros to Gazprom for violation of antitrust laws and refuses to supply gas, preferring LNG from the United States, Germany does not withdraw Nord Stream 2 from the directive that halves the pipeline capacity, it is not possible to pump enough gas into the Power of Siberia to meet the minimum norm under the contract with China. In addition, the profit in the first half of the year decreased 25 times - to 32.9 billion rubles. How can I refuse support here?
And there is just a reason - the gasification of the regions approved by the president. Despite the abundance of gas, far from everywhere in Russia people know how to heat themselves well and generate electricity not with smoking coal and fuel oil, but with clean and inexpensive gas. In the Far East, gasification in some regions is practically absent. And in the last days of work, Alexander Novak makes a statement that in the next 10 years, gasification of the regions will require 1.915 trillion rubles , and that the implementation of the program only at the expense of Gazprom will lead to a drop in budget revenues, which means that Gazprom should be helped to find additional sources of funding.
An interesting coincidence: earlier Alexey Miller said that Gazprom is ready to spend only 526 billion rubles for the first part (until 2025) of the program, which should increase the country's gasification level from the current 70.1% to 83%, or just over half of the required amount. And look for the rest wherever you want. Indeed, Miller will not have significant responsibility at such a pace: Alexander Novak finally suggested including the level of gasification in the list of key indicators for assessing the work of the heads of regions. Gazprom will receive the money, and the governors will be responsible - very convenient.
This desire of the head of Gazprom to get rid of unnecessary problems is understandable - over the past 15 years, the "national treasure" has not sought to show any zeal in the issue of providing gas to Russians. According to the company, in the period from 2005 to 2019 inclusive, 361.1 billion rubles were allocated for the gasification of Russia. For this money and 15 years, more than 2,000 gas pipelines with a total length of 34 thousand km were laid, and the level of gasification increased 53.3% to 70.1%. The revolution is clearly not drawn. Moreover, only the Power of Siberia with a length of 2,159 km without accompanying infrastructure cost 3 times more. The company has developed completely different priorities and relationships with contractors: the companies of Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko are engaged in large projects. And the construction of various inter-settlement and inter-district gas pipelines on the same terms does not promise such benefits. If 1 km of the Power of Siberia required 509.5 million rubles, then 1 km of gas pipelines inside Russia cost only 10.62 million rubles . The scale is not royal.
But now everything will change with the growth of investments. Previously, an increase of 1 percent to the level of gasification cost 21.5 billion rubles, and now, according to Novak's new estimate, each additional percent will cost 148.5 billion rubles . And how can interest not arise, especially considering that half of the amount will come from "other sources of funding" - count the federal budget and the budgets of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
And this money will not pass by - Gazprom has its own subsidiary, Gazpromstroyprom, acting as a "mega-contractor" - the construction goes through it, and whoever does not receive a contract for work from the outside.
Investments in gasification of the regions will undoubtedly increase. They will even take off. And this will allow both Gazprom itself and officials to report on the accelerated pace of work, because we have the amount of spent money - the main measure of success. And people... If you are lucky, then someone will even have gas, but only every third of those waiting for this blessing of civilization.