Gazprom: Russia may soon be supplying China with as much gas as western Europe

Russia may soon be supplying China through its pipeline network with as much natural gas as it supplies to western Europe. Alexey Miller, CEO of Gazprom, said this in a video posted on the Telegram messaging platform. The company holds a monopoly on pipeline gas exports from Russia.

Russia’s state-owned VEB bank estimates that pipeline gas exports from Russia to European Union countries could fall to 21 billion cubic metres this year. That would represent a decline of almost two-thirds compared with last year, Reuters reported. Russia used to be a major gas supplier to the EU, but the bloc began reducing its dependence on Russia more rapidly after the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia is expected to deliver about 22 billion cubic metres of natural gas to China this year through the Power of Siberia pipeline. This means that gas exports to China will exceed exports to Europe for the first time this year. Exports amounted to 15.5 billion cubic metres last year, the TASS news agency reported.

Power of Siberia is the main route for transporting Russian gas to China. The pipeline is expected to reach its designed capacity of 38 billion cubic metres in 2025.

China is now Gazprom’s largest available market. Bloomberg reported last week, however, that China cannot fully make up for Gazprom’s loss of the European market. According to the agency, Gazprom will supply gas to China at lower prices than in Europe and will need to invest heavily to reach its planned export volume.