Gazprom Power Unit sees Investments Rising on Weaker Rouble

Gazprom Energoholding, the utility unit of Russia's top natural gas producer Gazprom , expects long-term investments rising by up to 15 percent due to a weaker rouble, which inflated the prices of imports, the company said on Tuesday.

 

Russian companies which heavily rely on import of equipment have been suffering due to a weaker rouble, which declined by a third since the middle of last year following a fall in the prices of oil, Russia's chief exporting commodity.

 

Gazprom Energoholding, Russia's top utility, expects its investments into new projects by 2017 to rise to 450-470 billion roubles from 410 billion roubles ($8.3 billion), Denis Fyodorov, the director general, told reporters.

 

He also said that the company has been asking the government to freeze up some projects, or delay their implementation for several years in order to avoid excessive spending.

 

The company has already used up 357 billion roubles in the long-term investments.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged business to supplant imports by locally produced goods amid a dispute with the West over Moscow's role in the Ukrainian crisis. Many experts doubt that the plan will work for the commodity-oriented economy, which is heavily dependent on oil and gas sales.

 

Gazprom plans to build a power station in the North Caucasus region of Chechnya with capacity of 360 megawatt.

 

German industrial group Siemens (SIEMENS.NS) will supply steam turbines.

 

Gazprom Energoholding manages power generator OGK-2 , power company TGK-1 and power generator Mosenergo. It accounts for 17 percent of Russia's total electricity power capacity.

 

It plans to increase power production by 6.5 percent to 162.1 billion kilowatt hours this year.