Gazprom announces record deliveries to China on Monday from the Siberian Force gas pipeline
The Russian group Gazprom announced Tuesday record daily deliveries, the day before, to Beijing by the gas pipeline Force of Siberia, which crosses the Russian Far East in the direction of the northeast of China, in full visit of Xi Jinping in Russia .
Monday, “Gazprom delivered the requested volumes and set a new historical record for daily gas supply to China”, Gazprom said in a statement. Asked by Agence France-Presse (AFP), in particular about the precise delivery figure, the company replied “do not provide additional information”. Another source within Gazprom familiar with the matter told AFP that “daily volumes” delivered to China fell under“commercial information” and that they “No [seraient pas] unveiling[és] ».
Russia has been striving for several years to increase its gas deliveries to the Chinese economy, a major energy consumer, and has accelerated this movement for a year following international sanctions targeting it. Last year, gas deliveries via the Siberian Force pipeline to China reached an all-time high of 15.5 billion cubic meters. By 2025, Moscow intends to multiply by 2.5 its exports through this infrastructure, to 38 billion cubic meters each year.
In an article published by the Kremlin on Sunday evening, Vladimir Putin called the pipeline a“deal of the century”. In January, Russia exported 2.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China, according to Chinese customs, ranking first among exporting countries to the Asian giant. At the end of December, Vladimir Poutine had launched the exploitation of the gas field of Kovykta, a vast field located in Siberia which should make it possible to increase in the future the exports towards China.
Moscow and Beijing could soon conclude the implementation of the gigantic Force of Siberia 2 project, a gas pipeline which will cross Mongolia from Russia, to reach Xinjiang (north-west of China). It would have a capacity of 50 billion cubic meters transported each year, almost as much as Nord Stream (55 billion) in Europe before its interruption following sabotage in September 2022.