Natural gas production will begin this year from the Kirinskoye gas and condensate field under the Sakhalin III project, Gazprom announced.
The announcement followed a meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom's management committee, and Alexander Khoroshavin, governor for the Sakhalin region on 4 April 2013.
Gazprom said that for the first time in Russia's history subsea production systems will be used to produce natural gas, and the company plans to apply the experience it will gain to developing the Russian Arctic.
Currently, Gazprom is in the process of pre-developing other fields of the Sakhalin III project, saying that an action plan has been worked out as part of the project for the Yuzhno-Kirinskoye gas and condensate field development.
Miller and Khoroshavin also discussed present gasification development in the Sakhalin region such as Gazprom's plans to construct the Nogliki gas distribution station along with two inter-settlement gas pipelines. US$21.1 million (RUB 700 million) will be devoted to these projects in 2013.
Gazprom and the Sakhalin Region Government entered into the Agreement of Cooperation and the Accord on Gasification in September 2006 and October 2012 respectively. The joint program for the regional gasification development until 2014 was approved in 2011.