Posted on December 19, 2024
MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) – Gazprom has registered more than 40 gravel and sand quarries along the route of the future Volkhov-Murmansk gas pipeline.
Murmansk Region Governor Andrei Chibis told Interfax in an interview that a decision had been reached to revert to the original plan, in which Gazprom would build the gas pipeline.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Rosgeolfond, licenses for the use of common minerals were obtained during 2024 for 23 quarries in the Murmansk Region and 19 in Karelia.
Gazprom is currently in the process of implementing investment projects – areal and linear – and is registering licenses for common minerals which allows it to control prices for key construction materials.
The Russian government issued an order in November 2024 that only natural monopolies can register common mineral deposits under a simplified procedure for the construction of new gas pipelines, including Volkhov-Murmansk. The document refers to Article 9 of the Law on Subsoil, which, among other things, guarantees that natural monopolies in the field of gas transportation can obtain common mineral subsoil areas of local importance without auctions.
In Russia, more than 400 companies are included in the “Pipeline Gas Transportation” section of the fuel and energy complex natural monopolies register. This list includes PJSC Gazprom, its subsidiary gas transportation organizations, numerous regional, municipal, district and inter-district gas distribution enterprises, both from the Gazprom group and independent ones; and oil and gas producing companies, industrial enterprises and public utilities.
