A TETRA digital radio system is to provide mobile communications support along the Sakhalin–Khabarovsk–Vladivostok pipeline, constructed by the Russian energy company Gazprom to deliver natural gas to China and Russia’s Far East regions.

Total length of the pipeline route exceeds 1800 km. When its 14 compressor stations are in operation, the pipeline will be able to convey 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year. 

In the first stage of the project, 1350 km of pipeline were completed, ready to supply energy resources for – among other consumers – the 2012 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, a major international event which will take place near Vladivostok in September. The area’s infrastructure is being extensively improved in preparation for this meeting.

TETRA radio equipment for the pipeline is being supplied by Selex Elsag, a Finmeccanica company, through its Russian partner Bermos, under a contract worth €4 million.

Selex Elsag says it was selected for the project because of the capabilities of its TETRA solutions, which assure prompt, secure and reliable digital communications in any operational conditions. Since the 1990s the company has been Gazprom’s main provider of professional radio communication systems.

Gazprom’s evolution from analogue systems to TETRA technology began in 2008 with the provision of the first digital networks along pipelines and new extraction plants – beginning with the SEG (Severo-Evropeiskiy Gazoprovod, the North-European Gas Pipeline), through which Gazprom supplies natural gas to Russia’s north-western regions, the Baltic countries and northern Europe.