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[text/ruan jiaqi, observer network]

according to tass, bloomberg and other reports, on friday (20th) local time, gazprom announced that it had reached an agreement with china national petroleum corporation to increase the gas output of the "power of siberia" natural gas pipeline to the maximum level ahead of schedule before the end of this year.

the statement said that at the request of chinese partners, the two sides agreed to increase natural gas supplies in december to ensure that the daily natural gas supply to china through the "power of siberia" pipeline can reach the maximum level stipulated in the contract as soon as possible.

since 2019, russia has started to supply natural gas to china through the "power of siberia" pipeline, and the gas volume has increased year by year. it is expected that by 2025, the designed gas transmission capacity will reach 38 billion cubic meters per year, and the contract period is 30 years.

russian deputy prime minister alexander novak previously stated that in 2023, gazprom's natural gas supply to china through the "power of siberia" pipeline reached a record 22.7 billion cubic meters, 1.5 times the supply in 2022. by the end of this year, the supply may reach 30 billion cubic meters.

bloomberg estimated based on data from china's general administration of customs and the russian ministry of economy that in the first eight months of this year, gazprom supplied about 20.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas to china through the power of siberia pipeline. tass also reported that in the first eight months of this year, the value of pipeline natural gas supplied by russia to china exceeded us$5.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21.1%.

gazprom: far east pipeline construction on schedule

gazprom also stressed on friday that another pipeline from the russian far east to china is also being built as planned and is scheduled to start supplying in january 2027. by then, thanks to this far east pipeline with a designed annual gas transmission capacity of 10 billion cubic meters, gazprom's total gas exports to china will reach 48 billion cubic meters per year in the next few years.

alexi miller, president of gazprom, once pointed out that once the "power of siberia" and "far east pipeline" are operating at full capacity, russia will become china's largest natural gas supplier.

the third pipeline project, the power of siberia 2, which passes through mongolia, is still under discussion. the pipeline is designed to transport about 50 billion cubic meters of gas per year. when asked about related issues in june, chinese foreign ministry spokesman mao ning said that it is the consensus of the heads of state of china and russia to find the convergence of the interests of the two countries, deepen the integration of interests, and achieve mutual success. china is willing to work with russia to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state and continuously deepen the all-round mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

in may this year, kazakhstan's ambassador to russia, abayev, also revealed that russia plans to build a pipeline to transport natural gas to china through kazakhstan. currently, details of the plan, such as the construction time and natural gas prices, have not yet been determined and are still in the negotiation stage.

"we want to fully utilize our transport potential. the roadmap has been signed. we are talking about supplying 35 billion cubic meters of natural gas to china (per year)," abayev said at the time, according to russian media reports.

reuters said that this potential amount of natural gas delivered by russia to china via kazakhstan was disclosed to the public for the first time. the gas delivery volume of the new pipeline mentioned by abayev will be equivalent to the current gas delivery volume of the "power of siberia" natural gas pipeline on the east route between china and russia.

russian expert: western propaganda fabricated the claim that "russia sells natural gas to china at a low price"

according to a report by the russian news agency on the 20th, sergey sanakoyev, vice chairman of the russian-chinese friendship association and director of the russian asia-pacific research center, refuted rumors that "russia sells oil and natural gas to china at low prices" on the same day.

“these are all fabricated by western propagandists. today, hydrocarbon trade between russia and china is conducted entirely at mutually beneficial prices,” he added. “otherwise there would be no trade, and no one can force russia to sell oil or gas at unfavorable prices.”

sanakoyev further stated that he also completely disagreed with the view that the current growth in trade between russia and china was only due to china's purchase of russian hydrocarbons, and he stressed that the trade between the two countries was completely balanced.

"in the past, the west only wanted russian oil and gas and didn't care about anything else. washington and brussels also comforted us by saying: 'we will give you everything, including equipment, technology and cars,'" he recalled.

sanakoyev revealed that russia and china are currently actively developing trade in machinery manufacturing and high-tech products, cooperating in the fields of nuclear industry, aerospace, etc., investing in meaningful common projects and establishing joint ventures.

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