MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. The Altai gas pipeline will offer direct competition to Russian natural gas supplies to Europe, CEO of the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom Alexey Miller told the Rossiya 24 TV channel in an interview on Tuesday.

Unlike the Power of Siberia, the Altai pipeline has the same resource base as the gas supplies to Europe - Western Siberia, he said.

Russia plans to sign the contract on western route gas supplies to China in the second quarter of 2015.

Russia-China energy projects

A milestone event for Russia’s energy sector took place last May when gas giant Gazprom and China’s CNPC struck a major deal on gas supplies to China. The contract stipulates that 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas will be annually supplied to China via the eastern route over a period of 30 years. The contract is worth over $400 billion. The deal between the two companies was signed in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing in early November Russia’s Gazprom signed a framework agreement on gas supplies to China via the western route. A proposed pipeline, known as the Altai route, is intended to carry gas from deposits in Western Siberia to North-Western China. Gas supplies to China via that route may reach 30 billion cubic meters a year. In 2015 the countries will sign at least three key documents on that project.

Energy cooperation between Russia and China also includes the oil industry. Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft supplies oil to China under a long-term contract. The $270 billion deal with China’s CNPC was signed in 2013, and it envisages supply of about 360 million metric tons of oil to China over 25 years. This year the two energy giants agreed to deepen strategic partnership.