President of Russia Vladimir Putin: First of all, I want to congratulate all of the employees, everyone working for Rosneft, and all of our partners on this latest step. This is a big and important step. Rosneft has made yet another big stride towards establishing itself firmly as one of the biggest global energy companies on the Russian and world markets.
Today’s event is not an everyday occasion. It shows that Russia’s oil and gas industry is developing its high-tech capability.
The synergy you spoke about and the orders this will give our machine-building plants are also very important. It shows that the oil and gas industry is an initiator and powerful driving force and stimulus for other industrial sectors. The Izhorskiye Zavody company alone has orders worth two billion rubles for this project, and the Samara group has contracts worth another two billion. Also, the fact that Rosneft is acquiring licenses to produce new types of equipment gives these plants the chance to gain skills and experience. This is very important and is a big step in the efforts to modernise the entire Russian economy.
Of course, increasing the depth of oil processing from 54 percent to 98.7 percent is not just a big step in itself but marks a real advance for the whole company, for this particular enterprise.
It is very important in today’s world, especially in places like Tuapse (just as in Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk Region and the Far East) to look after the environment. In this respect, what your company is doing deserves our greatest attention and support. It is not possible today to develop large production facilities without making use of environmentally friendly technology.
I congratulate you all. Let’s start work.
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Vladimir Putin: Please, go ahead.