Gazprom has launched piped supplies of Russian gas to China through the newly commissioned Power of Siberia pipeline, a nearly 3,000km long natural gas pipeline project.
The Power of Siberia pipeline, which has an export capacity of 38 billion cubic meters per year, is considered to be the largest gas transmission system in Russia’s East.
The gas trunkline has been designed to supply gas produced from the Irkutsk and Yakutia gas production centres to consumers in Russia’s Far East and China, along the eastern route.
Gazprom management committee chairman Alexey Miller said: “The eastern route – Power of Siberia – is a global, strategically significant and mutually beneficial project.
“A new scope of energy cooperation between the two countries with a prospect for further development. Clean energy today and tomorrow, for decades to come.”
Gazprom said that to enable gas supplies to China, it had constructed a portion of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline that stretches nearly 2,200km from Yakutia to the Chinese border near Blagoveshchensk.
The Russian state-owned company also completed the Atamanskaya compressor station and a cross-border section having a two-string submerged crossing under the Amur River. The compressor station and the cross-border section are both located near the Chinese border.
Power of Siberia pipeline is backed by 30-year supply agreement with CNPC
Around mid-2014, Gazprom signed a sales and purchase agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to provide gas supplies for the latter for the course of 30 years of up to 38 billion cubic meters per year.
Gazprom broke ground on the first section in September 2014, which is a nearly 2,200km segment between the Chayandinskoye field in the Yakutia region and Blagoveshchensk.
The second phase of the Power of Siberia pipeline project will involve the construction of a section spanning around 800km from the Kovyktinskoye field in the Irkutsk region to the Chayandinskoye field. The third stage will see the expansion of gas transmission capacities between the Chayandinskoye field and Blagoveshchensk.
Gazprom said that the Power of Siberia pipeline will start getting gas from the Kovyktinskoye field in late 2020. Currently, the Kovyktinskoye field is serving the basis for developing the Irkutsk gas production centre, said the company.
