OREANDA-NEWS. An opening ceremony for a new compressed natural gas (CNG) filling station of Gazprom – the largest station of its kind in Russia and Europe – took place in Moscow today.

The event was attended by Viktor Zubkov, Chairman of the Gazprom Board of Directors, Kirill Molodtsov, Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation, Sergey Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow, Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Mikhail Likhachev, Director General of Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his greetings to the participants.

The CNG station has the design capacity of 29.8 million cubic meters of gas per year. It is equipped with 12 gas pumps and a dispenser for mobile NGV refueling stations. Thanks to the advanced, reliable equipment manufactured primarily in Russia, the new facility can service some 2,000 vehicles per day.

The station is located on Levoberezhnaya Street in Moscow’s Northern Administrative District next to the operating floor of the Zelenograd Motor Combine (formerly 11th Bus Park) owned by Mosgortrans and servicing 155 natural gas-powered buses.

“Russia has the largest reserves of natural gas in the world. In view of that potential, a few years ago we embarked on an ambitious effort to develop the refueling infrastructure that uses affordable and eco-friendly vehicle fuel. In the past three years, Gazprom’s investments into the gas filling network have exceeded RUB 10 billion. We have built 43 state-of-the-art stations in 24 Russian regions.

Moscow is a gigantic megalopolis, a major transport and logistics center. By the start of the FIFA World Cup, we will bring four more stations onstream in the city. They will comply with the highest quality and safety standards. Over the next two years, Gazprom will establish a full-fledged NGV refueling network in the region.

The crucial aspect is that the NGV market fosters the development of related industries, which, in its turn, generates jobs and improves the social and economic situation not only in the regions, but also in the country at large. The role of natural gas in vehicles is bound to grow further,” said Viktor Zubkov.