Gazprom to up gas deliveries to Asia to European level - Miller
GORKI. March 4 (Interfax) - Russian gas giant Gazprom intends to increase the amount of gas it supplies Asia with to a level commensurate with the amount it supplies to Europe in the middle term perspective, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said during a Tuesday meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
"A contract for delivering gas to China is almost completely ready. The term of the contract is thirty years. We think the contract could be signed in May of this year. The initial amounts of gas delivered to China under the contract are 38 billion cubic meters [per year]," Miller said.
Regarding the resource base of Western Siberia, Miller said, Gazprom and its Chinese partners have reached agreement that right after the contract is signed there will begin negotiations on the delivery of gas via the 'western route' - gas for which will be supplied from Western Siberia, he said.
Western Siberia has typically provided the gas supplied to Europe.
Miller said during the meeting that Gazprom produced 487.5 billion cubic meters of gas last year, of which 162 billion were exported to Europe.
More than 86 billion cubic meters of that gas was delivered through Ukraine, which to this point has been the main transit country. But, Miller said, deliveries through the Nord Stream pipeline have and are increasing, and plans for the South Stream pipeline project remain in effect.
"Everything is on schedule. The building of the overland sections of the gas pipelines on the territory of Bulgaria and Serbia has begun. The first gas [delivered] via the South Stream gas pipeline will go to Europe at the end of December next year," Miller said.