Crimea gas pipeline construction works are scheduled to be completed by December, said the head of the Department for Electric Power Operational Supervision Yevgeny Grabchak.

Crimea main gas pipeline construction works are scheduled to be completed by December 2016, the Head of the Department for Electric Power Operational Supervision and Management at the Energy Ministry of Russia, Yevgeny Grabchak, said in an interview on September 15, 2016.

According to him, at present, both a subsea section and all ground-surface sections of the pipeline are completed more than by 90%.

A 400-kilometer gas pipeline connects the mainland of the Russian Federation with Crimean Peninsula.

It was required to ensure supplies of blue fuel to thermal power plants under construction in Simferopol and Sevastopol.

The total capacity of these facilities is 940 MW. Stroygazmontazh is a property developer.

A new pipeline was planned to be laid on the bottom of a narrow waterway between Crimea and Krasnodar Region, known as the Kerch Strait.

The natural gas flowing through the Crimea-Kuban pipeline is expected to supplant the Black Sea peninsula’s energy dependence on Ukraine, estimated to amount to nearly three-quarters of its needs.

Russia’s 2020 federal target program for socio-economic development in Crimea outlines plans to construct the new pipeline, connecting with the existing three-city string and expanding production to over 2 billion cubic meters a year.

Over $250 million of the Crimea-Kuban pipeline’s total estimated cost of $368 million was expected to be spent on pipelaying across the bottom of the strait and the peninsula itself.