Russia has not found private investors for the gas pipeline to Crimea
The government's hopes of attracting private investors to develop Crimea's energy sector are failing: the gas pipeline from Kuban to Crimea, like much else, will have to be built at public expense because private investors fear sanctions, Kommersant reports.
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According to the publication, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Crimea are asking for 9,5 billion rubles. from the federal budget for the construction of the Kuban-Crimea gas pipeline, which by 2018 should deliver 2 billion cubic meters of gas per year to the peninsula. The source of another 10 billion rubles needed for the gasification of Crimea remains unknown. Initially, it was planned that at least Gazprom would be involved in the pipeline project, but, according to analysts, the government does not want to expose the monopoly to the risk of sanctions from the EU and the United States.
Now Crimea is fully supplied with gas through its own production in the amount of about 1,9 billion cubic meters per year (mainly on the shelf of the peninsula), which is carried out by the local Chernomorneftegaz. But the peninsula depends on electricity supplies from Ukraine, so by 2018 it is planned to build gas power plants in Crimea with a capacity of 900 MW, which will require additional gas. It should be supplied via a future gas pipeline from the Krasnodar Territory. The capacity of the pipeline to Crimea will be 2 billion cubic meters per year.
Russia has failed to find private investors for its Crimean gas pipeline.