ST. PETERSBURG, October 7. /TASS/. Russian energy giant Gazprom is ready to boost natural gas supplies to China to 100 billion cubic meters a year in the near term, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on Tuesday.

“Gazprom has entered this market quite recently by signing a very advantageous contract, which will yield $400 billion for us during 30 years,” Miller said at the St. Petersburg international gas forum.

“In fact, this is only the beginning. The prospects of supplies to the Chinese market, if we comment on them, are simply huge. We say that the volumes of our deliveries may shortly rise to 60 and even to 100 billion cubic meters a year,” the Gazprom CEO said.

While the Asia-Pacific region is a market based on liquefied natural gas and the LNG share dominates the local gas balance structure, it is possible to forecast that “the proportion of pipeline gas on the Asia-Pacific and Chinese markets will be rising ever more considerably,” Miller said.

The Gazprom chief said that “intra-regional competition for resources will presumably intensify” in the Asia-Pacific region.

Russia-China gas contract

The $400 billion contract signed between Gazprom and China’s CNPC in May 2014 envisages the delivery of 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China annually for a period of 30 years.

Natural gas will be supplied to China via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, the construction of which was launched by President Vladimir Putin on September 1.

Power of Siberia gas pipeline

The Power of Siberia gas pipeline estimated at $21.3 billion 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 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.