Gazprom: gas deliveries from Russian Far East to improve environmental situation in northeast China

MOSCOW. Jan 30 (Interfax) - Gas supplies from the Russian Far East will improve the environmental situation in northeast China, Gazprom Deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov said in an interview with Gas Industry magazine.

In 2022, PJSC Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation signed a long-term purchase and sale agreement for natural gas via the Far Eastern route, which will increase Gazprom's gas supplies to China by 10 billion cubic meters per year.

"I envisage that gas under the new agreement will go not only to the energy market of Beijing and Shanghai, but will also be actively consumed along the route of the Far Eastern gas pipeline in the northeastern regions of China with a gradual transfer of thermal power plants and boilers from coal to natural gas to achieve the goals set for carbon neutrality in China," Markelov said.

Earlier, Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said that the Russian company has begun developing design and estimate documentation for this supply project.

The demand for gas is estimated as high, which is confirmed by the current supplies through the Power of Siberia gas pipeline: they regularly exceed daily contractual amounts, Markelov said.

"It is symbolic that the year began with historical records. On January 1, the company reached a fundamentally new level of daily gas supplies to China via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, stipulated by a long-term contract with CNPC, and exceeded it by 0.45% as early as January 3. Demand for gas is high, which is backed up by the current trend when the buyer's demands often exceed the seller's obligations. The prospects of gas consumption growth in the world are linked to Asia, and Gazprom is strengthening its positions in this direction," Markelov wrote as editor-in-chief of Gas Industry magazine in a letter to the magazine's readers.

"In addition, the Soyuz Vostok gas pipeline is being designed. It will be a continuation of the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline in Mongolia. This is another route for Russian pipeline gas supplies to China. The design capacity of the Soyuz Vostok pipeline is 50 billion cubic meters of gas per year," he said.