China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and PipeChina are eager to start design and engineering of a cross-border pipeline in the Far East with Russia’s Gazprom early this year. A contract stipulates delivery of 10 bcm per year along the Far Eastern route, with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller vowing first flows will start in early 2027.
Gazprom’s deliveries of 10 bcm via the Far Eastern route across the Ussuri River near the cities of Dalnerechensk, Russia and Hulin, China, come on top of volumes coming via the Power of Siberia pipeline which are expected to reach the contractual level of 38 bcm per year in 2025. China is considering increasing gas import beyond the Power of Siberia’s design capacity, Miller noted, indicating “such an agreement could be reached soon.”
Analysts doubt, however, such a deal will be imminent considering negotiations about the initial deliveries of 38 bcm/y under a 30-year contract, worth some $400 billion, were hard-fought on price. CNPC in February 2022 agreed to purchase gas from Sakhalin in the Russian Far East, which will be transported via a new pipeline across the Japan Sea to Heilongjiang province. Agreed volumes will reach up to 10 bcm/y starting from around 2026.
Pivoting east, Gazprom is negotiating with China and Mongolia to advance an interconnector which would deliver previously Europe-bound gas from fields in western Siberia to China starting from 2030. The proposed Power-of-Siberia 2 pipeline would carry natural gas from the Yamal peninsula in western Siberia over 2,600 km though eastern Mongolia to China’s northeast Heilongjiang province. If all goes to plan, the pipeline would supply 50 bcm/y of Russian gas to China – just 5 bcm less than the now dysfunctional Nord Stream 1 pipeline linking Russia with Germany.
