Page 8 - AsianOil Week 07 2023

AsianOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AsianOil

Russia, China sign intergovt deal on

Far Eastern gas supplies

RUSSIA RUSSIA and China have signed an intergovern- for 38 bcm per year of gas via the Power of Sibe-
mental agreement on pipeline gas deliveries via ria pipeline. Power of Siberia supplies started in
The latest agreement the Far East, the Russian energy ministry has 2019 and rose 50% last year to a record 15.5 bcm.
sets out the key reported in a document last week, moving the Neither side has specified when supplies via
parameters of a supply two sides to a new stage in negotiations on the the Far East might start, however.
deal agreed by the two supply route. The Chinese market is central to Russia’s
sides in February last The agreement, signed by the two govern- plan to expand eastward gas shipments fol-
year. ments on January 31, sets out the key parameters lowing the loss of most of its market share in
for a 10 bcm per year gas supply contract that Europe over the past year. Moscow and Beijing
they clinched in February 2022. It also gives Gaz- are also discussing a 50 bcm per year contract to
prom the exclusive right to supply gas to China underpin the construction of Power of Siberia
via the route, which will run from the Sakha- 2, which would run from the Russian Arctic to
lin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline and across China through Mongolia. It would supply gas
the Ussuri river near the Russian border town of from fields that until recently served the Euro-
Dalnerechensk, north of Vladivostok. pean market.
The document also stated that both sides The Far Eastern supplies would come from
were committed to using their own national cur- Gazprom-operated fields off the coast of Sakha-
rencies for payments under the contract. lin Island. Gazprom has exclusive usage rights at
The contract covering supplies via the Far all of Russia’s export pipelines, while fellow state-
East is the second gas supply deal that Russia and owned major Rosneft has long been pushing for
China have reached, following the 2014 contract this monopoly to be ended. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 16•February•2023