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FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Gazprom claims it can send 130

bcm per year of gas to China

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S Gazprom could one day deliver up to gas supplies could be funnelled to the Chinese
130bn cubic metres per year of gas via pipeline market via a pipeline in the Far East. This project
Reaching this goal to China, its CEO Alexei Miller said at an annual has been discussed for years, although there has
would require Power of general meeting (AGM) of the supplier’s share- seemingly been little progress in negotiating a
Siberia to be enlarged holders on June 26. supply deal.
and two more pipelines Gazprom penned a $400bn contract to “Considering all of this, we can say that in the
to be built. deliver 38 bcm per year of gas to China in 2014 foreseeable future, the volume of [Russian] pipe-
via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. Power of line gas exported to China will exceed 130 bcm,”
Siberia came on stream in December, although Miller said, according to a transcript published
prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, on Gazprom’s website.
Gazprom estimated it would only pump 5 bcm The supply deal behind Power of Siberia’s
of gas to China this year. The full 38 bcm per year construction notably took over a decade of nego-
contractual level is not expected to be reached tiation. How much of a return Gazprom makes
until 2025. from sending gas to China is difficult to estimate,
Despite this, Miller said that raising the con- as the pricing terms and conditions have never
tractual amount to 44 bcm per year was “on the been publicised. For the time being, though,
negotiating table.” The claim comes just weeks competition in the Chinese gas market is stiff,
after a damning investigation was published by with LNG imports currently at record low prices
Russian news outlet Lenta.ru, which alleged that in the aftermath of the coronavirus (COVID-19)
Gazprom would struggle to deliver on the exist- pandemic.
ing supply deal, after overestimating how much In related news, Gazprom has picked its long-
gas could be produced at the Chayandinskoye time favoured contractor Stroytransneftegaz to
and Kovyktinskoye fields in Eastern Siberia. build the final 800-km section of Power of Sibe-
Gazprom is currently drawing up plans to ria, Russia’s RBC news agency reported on June
build a second, larger pipeline to China via Mon- 23 citing sources. The section will connect the
golia. The so-called Power of Siberia 2 would Kovyktinskoye field to Chayandinskoye, ena-
carry up to 50 bcm per year of gas, from fields on bling the former to start pumping gas to China
the Yamal Peninsula in the Russian Arctic. While by the end of 2022.
China is understood to support the scheme, nei- Stroytransneftegaz has completed 556 km of
ther side has given any indication of how quickly Power of Siberia’s first section between Chayan-
a supply contract could be agreed to underpin dinskoye and the Chinese border. The contrac-
the project’s development. tor is part-owned by Russian businessman and
At the AGM, Miller noted that additional Kremlin ally Gennady Timchenko. ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 26 01•July•2020