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Russian gas supplies to Asia-Pacific can rise ninefold by 2035 — energy minister

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Russia's oil and coal supplies to the Asia-Pacific Region will double by 2035

KRASNOYARSK, Febrauary 27. /TASS/. Russia's gas supplies to the Asia-Pacific Region by 2035 can rise ninefold from 14 to 130 billion cubic meters, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said at the Krasnoyarsk economic forum.

The minister noted that oil and coal supplies to the region by 2035 will double.

Russia-China energy cooperation

A milestone event for Russia’s energy sector took place in May last year when gas giant Gazprom and China’s CNPC struck a major deal on gas supplies to China. The contract stipulates that 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas will be annually supplied to China via the eastern route over a period of 30 years. The contract is worth over $400 billion. The deal between the two companies was signed in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing in early November Russia’s Gazprom also signed a framework agreement on gas supplies to China via the western route. A proposed pipeline, known as the Altai route, is intended to carry gas from deposits in Western Siberia to North-Western China. Gas supplies to China via that route may reach 30 billion cubic meters a year. In 2015 the countries will sign at least three key documents on that project.

Energy cooperation between Russia and China also includes the oil industry. Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft supplies oil to China under a long-term contract. The $270 billion deal with China’s CNPC was signed in 2013, and it envisages supply of about 360 million metric tons of oil to China over 25 years. This year the two energy giants agreed to deepen strategic partnership.

The Power of Siberia gas pipeline

A major gas pipeline is currently being built in Russia to provide for the gas supplies to China. The construction of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline was started on September 1. The pipeline’s cost is estimated at $21.3 billion. The pipeline is intended to pump 61 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually and will stretch over a distance of 3,968 km (2,465 miles). The pipeline is designed to pump natural gas from the giant Chayanda oil and gas condensate deposit in Yakutia in north-eastern Russia and the Kovykta gas condensate field in the Irkutsk Region in Eastern Siberia to the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok.