Gazprom targets further rise in Chinese gas sales in 2022
Russia's Gazprom said on December 14 it would aim to ramp up gas supplies to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline even further in 2022, after increasing volumes "significantly" in November and December.
Gazprom made the announcement after holding talks with China's CNPC, which buys all the gas pumped through Power of Siberia under a 30-year deal signed in 2014 valued at $400bn.
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"Gazprom continues its preparations for the further planned increase of gas exports to be performed in 2022 in line with the supply expansion dynamics envisaged in the contract," the company said.
The Russian supplier previously said it expected to send around 10bn m3 of gas to China in 2021. The rate of supply is currently a third higher than the obligatory amount set in its contract, the company said earlier this month.
At full capacity Power of Siberia will deliver 38bn m3/year of gas to China from the Chayandinskoye and Kovyktinskoye fields in east Siberia. Work on a feasibility study is currently underway for a second pipeline that would flow gas from the Arctic to China via Mongolia. That line, known as Soyuz Vostok, would handle as much as 50bn m3/yr of gas.
In their meeting, Gazprom and CNPC also discussed cooperation on underground gas storage and scientific, technical and oil projects. Gazprom signed a memorandum on developing gas storage and gas-fired power generation in China back in 2016.
On December 15 Russian president Vladimir Putin held a virtual meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, in which they stressed their unity in the face of tensions with the West, and pledged that they would defend each other's security interests. The economic relationship between China and Russia has been cemented by major oil and gas trade deals. Although there is also a degree of distrust in Moscow over Beijing's creeping economic influence in the Russian Far East.