BRUSSELS, May 22. /ITAR-TASS/. The European Union expects a new long-term gas contract between Russia and China will not affect Russian natural gas supplies to Europe, Sabine Berger, a spokesperson for EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, said on Thursday.

“We expect Russia to remain a reliable and responsible gas supplier to the EU,” Berger told journalists in Brussels.

The European Commission expects Russia to fulfill its contractual obligations for gas deliveries to Europe, she said.

Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed on Wednesday a 30-year contract on Russian natural gas supplies to China via the eastern route worth a total of $400 billion. The document was signed in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said the deal envisaging the supply of 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China annually was the largest contract for the Russian energy giant.

Putin said after the signing ceremony that Russia and China would also start to work on the western route of natural gas deliveries to China from Western Siberia.

Gazprom said the price of gas deliveries to China was a commercial secret. Russian gas market experts polled by ITAR-TASS said they estimated the base gas price under the contract at $360-390 per 1,000 cubic meters.