Russia will begin gas supply to South Korea in 6 years

The supply of gas from Russia to the Republic of Korea by pipeline can start in 2017, said the head of the Russian gas monopolist "Gazprom" Alexei Miller following negotiations by the presidents of the two countries of Dmitry Medvedev and Lee Men Buck.

“The issues of cooperation in the gas sector in negotiations were discussed,” RIA Novosti quoted Miller as saying. “It can be expected that the supply of Russian pipeline gas to the Republic of Korea will begin in 2017.”

In mid -September, Gazprom and the South Korean company Kogas signed a plan (the so -called "road map") for the implementation of the gas supply project to the Republic of Korea by the gas pipeline. Then the parties paid special attention to the problem of gas supplies through the territory of North Korea.

At the end of August, according to the results of negotiations with the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Irom, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced that they managed to agree to work out a project for the construction of a gas pipeline for gas export to South Korea.

Earlier, on August 8, the project of the construction of such a pipeline was discussed by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov with his Korean colleague Kim Song Khan. Based on the results of negotiations, Lavrov said that if agreements are reached at the corporate level, the project will receive political support for all three parties.

The length of the pipe under discussion will be more than 1100 km, a significant part of it (700 km) falls on the territory of the DPRK. The power of the highway, according to preliminary data, should amount to about 20 billion cubic meters per year - 10 billion cubic meters for Pyongyang and Seoul. Gas supply to the North Korean regime, according to Moscow, should solve the problem of energy supply of the country's economy and stimulate the readiness of the DPRK leadership to abandon the nuclear program.

The cost of building a gas pipeline section through the DPRK is estimated at $ 2.5 billion.

As the deputy chairman of Gazprom’s board Alexander Medvedev reported, the volume of expected gas supplies from Russia to South Korea has been increased to 12 billion cubic meters from 10 billion. Currently, Gazprom supplies liquefied gas to the amount of up to 1.5 million tons per year.