Enlarge image
Section of the "Power Siberia 1" pipeline in China (photo from 2015)
Photo: Uncredited / dpa
It is a threat that Russia has made in the past: The Kremlin wants to channel the natural gas that it has previously sold to Europe to China.
The planned pipeline "Power Siberia 2" will replace the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2, said Russian Energy Minister Alexander Nowak on Russian state television on Thursday evening.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan, Nowak said Russia will supply China with 50 billion cubic meters of gas annually.
The contracts will be signed shortly, Nowak said in Uzbekistan.
The announced 50 billion cubic meters corresponds approximately to the maximum capacity of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline – 55 billion cubic meters.
No gas has flowed through the pipeline to Europe since September.
Russia has repeatedly blamed changing alleged technical problems.
Western governments and the Siemens group responsible for pipeline maintenance, on the other hand, consider this to be an exaggeration.
Nord Stream 2, on the other hand, has not been put into operation because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Technical obstacles
The planned start of construction for the "Power Siberia 2" line is 2024, Nowak said.
Gas has been flowing from Yakutia to China through the Power of Siberia 1 pipeline since 2019.
The energy minister announced deliveries through the pipeline would be increased to reach 20 billion cubic meters per year.
The connection of the Kovitka field near Lake Baikal next year will make this easier.
In 2024, "Power Siberia 1" should reach full capacity, when 61 billion cubic meters of gas will flow through the pipeline per year, 38 billion cubic meters of which will go to China.
The Russian company Gazprom and the Chinese company CNPC had agreed on this in 2014.
Nowak also announced the construction of another line to northern China;
it should start in Vladivostok and bring about ten billion cubic meters of gas to China.
Long before the start of the attack on Ukraine, Russia had repeatedly flirted with diverting gas that had previously been delivered to the West to the East.
However, this involves a great deal of effort.
Many gas fields have so far been connected to the Russian pipeline network leading west.
In order to deliver to China, further pipelines would first have to be built within Russia.
In addition, China does not yet have sufficient infrastructure inland to accept and distribute significantly larger quantities of Russian pipeline gas.
beb/afp
