Power of Siberia Goes Offline for Maintenance: Press
The Power of Siberia pipeline flowing Russian gas to China has gone offline so that routine maintenance work can take place, its operator Gazprom said on March 16, according to Russia's Tass news agency.
The pipeline, which delivers gas from the Chayandinskoye field in Yakutia, halted operations at 05:00 Moscow time on March 16 and will not come back on stream until April 1.
Gazprom said it had agreed on the schedule of the maintenance with China's CNPC, which receives gas from Power of Siberia under a 30-year contract signed in 2014. The pair have agreed on conducting maintenance at the pipeline twice a year, in spring and autumn.
Power of Siberia was launched at the start of December and had shipped a total of 840mn m3 of gas by early March. Its closure comes at a time when China is scaling back gas imports because of the impact the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak has had on demand. China has invoked force majeure on some of its contracts for piped gas and LNG, but Gazprom confirmed on March 5 that it had not received such a notice from CNPC.