96.03, 04, 05, 06 - Rehabilitation, Modernisation and Rationalisation of Existing Gas Transmission Networks - Audit of Existing Infrastructure

These four projects involving the audit of the existing gas network were essentially one project spread into a set of subprojects covering different regions as follows:

• 96.03 - Central Asia East - Kyrgystan and Uzbekistan
• 96.04 - Caucasus - Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia
• 96.05 - Belarus and Moldova
• 96.06 - Central Asia West - Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (for the routes from Central Asia to the Caucausus, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus)

The overall objective of the project was to facilitate gas transmission both within the region and to the export market countries, through investments in rehabilitation, modernisation and expansion of gas transmission facilities in the above regions.

These four projects assessed in considerable details the gas transport and transit facilities of the countries involved and prepared for each country an investment programme consisting of three phases:

• Phase I : stopping deterioration of the facilities, which included essentially conservation measures aiming at protecting the environment, improving safety and reliability of supply,
• Phase 2 : improving the quality of service, which included improving the quality of gas, improving reliability of the lines and the continuity of service, including the provision of adequate storage capacity to meet demand during the winter,
• Phase 3 : included increase in system capacity to meet projected demand over the next 10 to 20 years.

The results of the evaluation, or the investment programme, are summarised in the table below.

The overall conclusion was that the majority of oil and gas pipelines were over 30 years old and needing serious rehabilitation. The investment programmes developed targeted in the first instance, the protection of the existing transmission system against further deterioration and so that supply levels can be maintained. These investment programmes by region and technology can be found in the attached CD ROM.