Moscow and Beijing could seal major gas pipeline deal by year-end – Russian deputy PM

Gazprom and CNPC are negotiating terms for the planned Power of Baikal pipeline, which could carry 50 billion cubic meters of gas annually via Mongolia Russia and China could finalize agreements on a major new gas pipeline by the end of the year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak said on Wednesday, in a potential breakthrough that would significantly expand Moscow’s energy exports to Asia.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of talks between Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang in St.

Petersburg, Novak said the planned Power of Baikal pipeline was among the issues discussed.

“Our companies – Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation – are negotiating a second route for gas supplies from Russia to the People’s Republic of China,” he said.

“We are waiting for our companies to complete commercial negotiations and hope they will reach the relevant agreements by the end of the year.” Li arrived in St.

Petersburg on Tuesday for the regular meeting of the Russian and Chinese heads of government.

Russia already supplies gas to China through the Power of Siberia, a more than 3,000-kilometer pipeline launched in 2019.

It carries gas from the Chayandinskoye field in Yakutia and the Kovyktinskoye field in Irkutsk Region through Russia’s Far East and across the border near Blagoveshchensk, connecting to a Chinese network extending toward Shanghai.

Its annual export capacity is 38 billion cubic meters (bcm), with deliveries reaching 38.8 bcm in 2025.

The planned Power of Baikal, previously known as Power of Siberia 2, would open a major new energy corridor.

The roughly 2,600-kilometer pipeline is designed to deliver up to 50 bcm annually from Russia’s Arctic gas fields on the Yamal Peninsula to China via Mongolia, including the Soyuz Vostok transit pipeline. © RT Unlike Power of Siberia, which draws gas from eastern Siberia, the new route would tap western Siberian reserves that previously supplied Europe, giving Moscow a major new outlet for gas following the collapse of much of its European market.

Novak said the project was renamed Power of Baikal to distinguish it from the existing pipeline and reflect its planned route along the southern shore of Lake Baikal.

The precise route remains subject to final commercial agreements.

Read more Russia quietly launches Arctic oil giant: What is Vostok Oil? Together, the two pipelines would give Russia a combined nominal export capacity of around 88 bcm annually to China – roughly 80% of the 110 bcm combined capacity of Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2, built to supply Russian gas to Europe via the Baltic Sea.