100,000 from Putin for gas supply: what will it give the economy

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised large families, veterans, the disabled and low-income families to allocate subsidies for the purchase of gas equipment and work within the framework of social gasification. The money in the amount of 100 thousand rubles should be provided by the regions, the President said at the plenary meeting of the Russian Energy Week.

Experts believe that this idea logically fits into the program of social gasification, in addition, it will help Russia sell excess gas on the domestic market under Western sanctions, but it would be much more effective for the country to stop relying on the resource-based economy and start investing in the gas chemical industry.

Speaking at the Russian Energy Week forum, the head of state instructed to extend the social gasification program “beyond the horizon” of 2022, as well as to help low-income citizens with the purchase of the necessary equipment and payment for laying a pipe from the boundaries of the site to the house, now this service is paid. However, not all Russians can afford it to provide themselves with fuel.

“In my opinion, this is a very logical decision for the foreign policy situation in which we are now. Especially if we want to keep gas production at the same level, since external fuel supply channels for export are gradually shrinking,” says Nikita Maslennikov, a leading expert at the Center for Political Technologies.

All this, of course, is good, but where will the regions get the money to subsidize needy families for the purchase of gas equipment?

“Our authorities keep saying that social support should be targeted. The Ministry of Finance even gave the exact figure that 40% of social payments should be targeted. Here’s a great idea: it has everything you need – both targeting and social support for the population. As for money, the surplus of the consolidated budget of the Russian regions now exceeds a trillion rubles. So, not everyone has money, but this is why deputies are needed, who will adopt the budget and decide who needs how much to allocate for the implementation of these tasks, ”says Maslennikov.

According to him, 500 billion rubles have already been allocated to the regions for the implementation of infrastructure projects, so someone will take money from there, someone will be additionally allocated, but the president set a very real task for the governors. Putin began to promote social gasification during the pandemic, and now, given Western sanctions, the decision to let our gas to the domestic market would be very reasonable.

“In fact, this is not Putin’s idea. Some regions have already begun to allocate to poor families for internal gasification of houses for about 50, and somewhere for 100 thousand rubles, but the president proposes to expand this experience and do it everywhere, throughout the country, ”says Sergei, director of the Energy Development Fund Pikin.

However, the expert is sure that even if the government succeeds in supplying gas to all households in the country, this measure is unlikely to help compensate for the shortfall in export supplies. The volumes of gas that are currently consumed within Russia and those that it supplies for export are unequal. Does this mean that we have nowhere else to sell gas?

“Of course not – on Wednesday there was a proposal to create a Turkish hub. This is a very promising project. But you must admit that the country, which is the world leader in gas production, must first of all provide its population with this fuel, but so far this is far from that, Maslennikov believes. – In addition, it is necessary to develop gas chemistry – this is a huge list of products, from pharmaceuticals to composite materials. Talks about the development of the gas chemical industry have been going on since 2012, and now is just the moment when it is time to move from words to deeds.”

Sergey Pikin also believes that we should stop treating gas only as an export raw material and develop our own gas chemical production. Take at least the same fertilizers, for example. Given the current high gas prices on world markets, and according to analysts’ forecasts, they will remain at this level for more than one year, our fertilizers will be the most competitive in the world.

“Firstly, fertilizers are not subject to sanctions, and secondly, we have the cheapest gas in the world – so why send gas to Europe, which makes fertilizers out of it, if we can produce them ourselves? They will be the cheapest, which means they will be in demand all over the world,” says Pikin.

According to the expert, another way to increase the domestic gas consumption market is to provide old CHPPs with the opportunity to consume it for free, and use the saved money to upgrade equipment. In this way, we will be able to maintain gas production and upgrade outdated infrastructure, plus we will give an incentive for the production of domestic equipment for thermal power plants.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28890 dated October 14, 2022

Newspaper headline:
100 thousand – for the boiler and for the pipe