State-owned gas giant Gazprom will soon move two departments to St. Petersburg.
A senior city official said the departments are "gradually starting to be moved and the rest will move eventually," Vedomosti reported Monday.
The unidentified official attributed the move to the company's plans to relocate its offices to the new Lakhta-Center, an 86-story skyscraper being built for Gazprom in the city.
The skyscraper, with an area of 334,000 square meters, is slated for completion by 2018.
The company's departments for construction and procurement are "already in the process of moving," while a third responsible for design work has been set up in St. Petersburg from scratch, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told Vedomosti.
He said there had been no decision yet regarding other departments.
Andrei Kruglov, head of Gazprom's finance department, said his department would not be moving anytime soon, Interfax reported Friday.
It was not immediately clear whether the move would be accompanied by new registration for Gazprom, which would require the company to pay additional local taxes.
Although Kupriyanov said the move was being conducted in agreement with the city, a second city official said the relocation was not receiving any funds from the city budget.
Vedomosti said employees working in the relocated departments are being paid an additional two to three months' wages to find housing in the northern capital.
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