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China entitled to postpone launch of Russian gas supplies via Power of Siberia — Gazprom

The Russian side is not considering the issue of delays

SINGAPORE, October 27. /TASS/. The Chinese side has the right to postpone the launch of Russian gas supplies via the Power of Siberia pipeline pursuant to the contract, Gazprom Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee Alexander Medvedev told TASS on Tuesday, adding though that the company does not expect any delays as "everything is proceeding on schedule."

"From our side everything is proceeding according to the schedule, and we are not considering the option [of delays]," he said.

The Chinese partners "are flexible but taking into account how they started construction in their territory we don’t expect any delays," Medvedev said.

According to the memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the natural gas field from June 24, 2009, which was signed by Gazprom and China’s CNPC, Russian gas will be supplied to the country in two directions - western and eastern.

The eastern route involves development of new fields in Eastern Siberia, firstly Chayanda field and Kovykta gas field. Power of Siberia gas pipeline is going to be built starting from these fields, which later will be connected with the gas pipeline Sakhalin - Khabarovsk - Vladivostok. Branch pipe to China will be built near Blagoveshchensk. The western route includes delivery of 30 bln cubic meters through the pipeline from the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District through the Altai region to the northwest of China for 30 years.

On September 3, Gazprom and CNPC signed a Memorandum of Understanding on natural gas supplies from Russia to China through the pipeline from the Far East. According to various estimates, its capacity could be from 25 to 38 bln cubic meters per year.