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Energy 10 February, 2023 10:00 am   

Russia will build another gas pipeline to China that will not be an alternative to Europe

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The Russians announced an intergovernmental agreement with China on building a natural gas pipeline in the Far East that will carry 10 bcm a year. This project is not an alternative to contracts on the EU market that are supplied from another raw material base.

The new gas connection between the station near Dalnerechenskoe and its counterpart in the Chinese Hulin will allow the supply of 10 billion cubic meters annually under the Gazprom-CNPC contract from the beginning of February. The target capacity is 40 bcm a year.

There is no information about the date of completion of this connection. However, it will connect the east Russian market with China from the east. That market is supplied from the expanding fossil fuel base in Eastern Siberia, which also supplies the Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline. Its target capacity is 38 billion cubic meters annually, but in 2022 10 bcm of gas was transmitted via the pipe, and in 2023 that figure will go up to 15.5 bcm.

Therefore, both pipelines do not make it possible to redirect the European gas supply, which decreased import from Russia in 2022 twice to about 100 bcm, while Gazprom participation went down from 40 to 5 percent. It could fall to zero in 2023.

A real alternative is the power of Siberia 2 pipeline, which is supposed to connect Russia and China through Mongolia, allowing for deliveries of up to 50 billion cubic meters  annually from the raw material base on the Yamal Peninsula used so far for the needs of the European market. However, this project has not yet reached the implementation phase.

Neftegaz.ru/Wojciech Jakobik