FSUOGM: Russia expands China ties with new gas deal

Russia and China have clinched a new gas supply deal, as Moscow doubles down on its pivot towards Beijing against a backdrop of heightened tensions with the West over Ukraine.

Russia’s national gas company Gazprom announced on February 4 that it had agreed on the annual sale of 10bn cubic metres per year of natural gas to China’s CNPC over a 30-year period. The agreement underpins the development of a new export route for Russian gas to China in the Far East.

Russia already pumps gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline, which was opened in late 2019. These supplies are sent under a $400bn deal the two countries reached in 2014, not long after ties between Russia and the West collapsed following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.

While Power of Siberia is filled with gas from onshore fields in Eastern Siberia, the latest contract is for supplies from the South-Kirinskoye field off the east coast of Sakhalin Island.

The deal was signed on the same day as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrival in Beijing to attend the 2022 Winter Olympics. Moscow and Beijing are eager to stress their close ties in the face of worsening relations with the US. According to the Kremlin, up to 15 agreements could be signed between the two countries during Putin’s visit.

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