MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. Energy cooperation will top the agenda of a summit meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow, China’s Ambassador to Russia Lee Huei said on Wednesday.
It is still unknown how many and which documents will be signed during the meeting between the Russian and Chinese leaders, the ambassador said.
"No doubt, these will be the documents in the political sphere and in the sphere of trade and economic cooperation," the Chinese diplomat said.
Details on the documents that will be signed during the meeting "will become known closer to the visit by the Chinese leader to Russia somewhere two days before its start," he said.
It is not ruled that the Russian and Chinese leaders will discuss the prospects of concluding a bilateral agreement on gas supplies via the western route, China’s ambassador said.
"Energy cooperation will be a major issue at the negotiations between our leaders," the Chinese diplomat said.
Russian and Chinese companies are currently negotiating the terms of an agreement on gas supplies via the western route while an agreement on gas deliveries via the eastern route has already been signed, China’s ambassador to Moscow said.
Russia’s gas supplies to China via western route
Russia and China are expected to sign a contract on gas supplies along the western route to pump Russian natural gas from its West Siberian gas fields to its eastern neighbor.
Gazprom Head Alexey Miller held talks in China on February 13 on Russian natural gas supplies via the western route. Miller said after the talks that the project of a gas pipeline to run along the western route was at an advanced stage of readiness for the commencement of its construction. Russia was preparing a new contract with China for the supply of 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, the Gazprom head said at the time.
Gazprom and China’s CNPC signed a framework agreement on November 10, 2014 on Russian natural gas supplies to China via the western route, using the Altai gas pipeline system. Direct supplies are scheduled to begin in 2019. The western route project will supplement Russia’s natural gas supplies to its eastern neighbor via the Power of Siberia pipeline.
Russia’s gas supplies to China via eastern route
The Power of Siberia gas pipeline estimated at over $21 billion is intended to pump 61 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to the Russian Far East and China 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 northeast Russia and the Kovykta gas condensate field in the Irkutsk Region in Eastern Siberia. The Power of Siberia will run along the operational East Siberia - Pacific oil pipeline, crossing marshlands, mountainous and seismically active areas.
The first stage envisages the construction of the Yakutia-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok trunk gas pipeline. During the second stage, the Irkutsk gas production center based on the Kovykta deposit will be connected with the Yakutia center based on the Chayanda field.
The gas pipeline’s first stage is scheduled to be commissioned in 2017.
The Chayanda oil and gas condensate field in the Lensky district of Yakutia was discovered in 1989. The field, one of Russia’s largest undeveloped deposits, holds about 1.45 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 93 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons. The field is expected to produce up to 25 billion cubic meters of natural gas and at least 1.5 million tons of oil annually.
The Kovykta gas condensate deposit discovered in 1987 is located in the north of the Irkutsk Region. The deposit’s reserves are estimated at 1.9 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, 2.3 billion cubic meters of helium and 115 million tons of liquid gas condensate.