OREANDA-NEWS. November 23, 2009. Lipetsk hosted today a meeting moderated by Valery Golubev, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee with heads of regional gas marketing companies and representatives from administrations of the Russian Federation constituents located in the Southern Federal Okrug.

The meeting addressed the experience gained by the best regional gas companies as reliable gas suppliers and the Russian regions as prompt payers for the gas consumed. In particular, the meeting discussed the issues of arranging the interaction of gas suppliers and administrations of the Lipetsk Oblast and the Republic of Bashkortostan that had resulted in 100 per cent gas payment by the population and the utility service companies.

The meeting participants noted that during 9 months of 2009 the level of gas payment by Russia’s population had averaged 96 per cent, while in Northern Caucasian republics it hadn’t exceeded 53 per cent. Moreover, these republics account for 97 per cent of Russia’s total consumer debt that had arisen as a result of the misbalance mainly caused by unauthorized gas offtake and utilization of uncertified and self-made equipment by consumers.

Inter alia, the problem of the population debt may be settled through deployment of information and computing centers with participation of regional gas marketing companies and regional authorities. This will help eliminate the human factor from the gas payments collection system and move over to up-to-date electronic payment calculation systems.

“The problems related to a low level of gas payments by the population, redemption of the accumulated debt and misbalance may be settled. In particular, it is possible when regional authorities are seeking for efficient cooperation in this field. I am sure that today’s meeting will help improve the payment situation in the Southern Federal Okrug,” stated Valery Golubev.