MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev pledged on Thursday all-embracing support to Gazprom and China’s CNPC in the design and construction of gas transport infrastructure for China-bound supplies via the eastern route.

“Comprehensive assistance will be rendered to these companies at the level of the governments in designing, construction and operation of the gas transportation infrastructure required for Russian natural gas supplies to our Chinese partners,” Medvedev told a government meeting that discussed the issue of concluding the relevant agreement.

The agreement will primarily relate to the Power of Siberia gas pipeline intended to pump natural gas to China.

The conclusion of an inter-governmental document is required to enforce the agreement on the purchase/sale of natural gas via the eastern route signed by Gazprom and CNPC on May 14, 2014.

China's CNPC received government permission to start a preliminary engineering project of the Chinese part of Russia’s Power of Siberia gas pipeline. China will start laying the pipeline in January-June 2015. The construction of the part going from the city of Heihe in northeast China to Shanghai will be finished and Power of Siberia will be launched in 2018.

Power of Siberia gas pipeline

Gazprom and China’s CNPC signed a $400 billion contract on 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.

Gazprom said it is capable of more than doubling natural gas supplies to China to 100 billion cubic meters annually, including via the western route connecting fields in Western Siberia with Northwest China through the Altai Republic.

The Power of Siberia gas pipeline estimated at $21.3 billion is intended to pump 61 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the Russian Far East and China 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.