Bloomberg: Energy Deals on Agenda as China’s Xi Visits Putin in Moscow

The energy relationship between Russia and China will be a big part of discussions during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow on Friday.

President Vladimir Putin’s recent support for a gas pipeline from East Siberia to China increases the chances the two countries will sign new energy agreements, said Keun-Wook Paik, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said in an e-mail.

Putin’s final approval on May 2 for the Power of Siberia trunk pipeline eased Beijing’s worries over the future of the project. Doubts about the project surfaced when OAO Gazprom, Russia’s gas-export monopoly, said preference may be given to another pipeline, known as Altai, routed to China’s less industrialized north-western regions.