BEIJING, February 8. /TASS/. Energy cooperation between Russia and China will keep strengthening for energy security reasons, a Chinese industry expert said.
"China-Russia energy trade has shown a positive trend and cooperation in the sector will only get stronger for energy security reasons," the Global Times quoted Ma Yinchuan, head of the China Industrial Gases Industry Association, as saying.
According to Ma, as a gas supplier, Russia has been playing an increasingly important role for China. In the past two years, China has increased Russian helium imports, reducing purchases from the United States.
The Chinese newspaper described China-Russia cooperation in the energy sphere as "the centerpiece of bilateral economic and trade ties in recent years." It recounted a recent Reuters report which said, citing sources, that Russia’s largest LNG producer Novatek has been building a business development and marketing team in Beijing in the past few months.
Novatek’s "reported move is within expectations, as normal energy trade between China and Russia is expanding despite Western sanctions," Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.
Russia is China’s largest energy supplier to China. According to China’s General Administration of Customs, in 2023, the People’s Republic of China increased Russian LNG imports by 22.8% to more than 8 mln metric tons. Last year, Russian pipeline gas exports to China rose 61.6%, reaching $6.43 bln.