Russia is close to determining the route of a new gas pipeline to China

Deputy prime minister in charge of Energy Alexander Novak announced on Wednesday that the determination of the route of the giant gas pipeline “power of Siberia 2”, which, after its completion, aims to transport 50 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia to China, is nearing completion for the Russian side.

He is “at his final stage,” Alexander Novak said in an interview with the Russian magazine “energy policy”.

He said that this gas pipeline, which Moscow hopes to sign a construction contract with Beijing before the end of the year, should pass near the city of Achinsk, southern Siberia, then Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk, then south of Lake Baikal, before reaching Naushki, on the border with Mongolia.

“A project to build a branch of the gas pipeline from (this) village to Ulan-Ude, then to Chita (to the East), with a total length of 700 kilometers, is being studied on Russian territory,”he added.

In March, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, next to him in Moscow, confirmed that “all agreements have been concluded” between Russia and China on this huge project of several thousand kilometers in length. But their final joint statement was limited to encouraging “research and consultation”.

This project is supposed to allow Russia to redirect gas supplies from Europe to Asia, after it lost the European market due to targeted sanctions and sabotage of the “Nord Stream” gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea in September 2022.

But, so far, Beijing has avoided any official commitment to this project, for which a timetable has not yet been announced. While Moscow, for its part, noted that construction will begin as early as 2024.

Last March Alexander Novak confirmed that the Russian state-owned Gazprom, and the large Chinese CNBC group in the sector, will sign the contract “by the end of the year”.

Currently, Russia exports its natural gas from Siberia to northeast China via the “Siberian Power 1” gas pipeline, and it aims to deliver 98 billion cubic meters of gas and 100 million tons of liquefied natural gas to its diplomatic and economic ally by 2030.