MOSCOW (Reuters) -The heads of Russia’s Gazprom and China’s energy company CNPC discussed future Russian gas supplies to China during talks in Beijing, Gazprom said on Friday, as Moscow seeks stronger ties with the world’s biggest energy consumer.
Russia, the holder of world’s largest gas reserves, has diverted oil supplies from Europe to India and China since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022.
At the same time, Russia’s diversification of pipeline natural gas from the European Union has been slow.
It started gas exports to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline in the end of 2019 and plans to reach the pipeline’s annual exporting capacity of 38 billion cubic metres this year.
Russia and China have also agreed on exports of 10 bcm of gas from Russia’s Pacific island of Sakhalin starting from 2027.
However, years of talks about the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, which would ship 50 bcm of gas per year to China via Mongolia, have yet to be concluded as the two sides disagree over issues such as the gas price.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to travel to China in early September to participate in celebrations marking the anniversary of the victory over Japan in World War II.
The trip follows Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow in May.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Barbara Lewis)
