Russia has begun exporting natural gas to China via the overland pipeline. On December 2, the parties marked the occasion in a ceremony that was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping via video link.
The Russian pipeline to China is part of an extensive 3,000-km network that handles gas from multiple fields in Eastern Siberia. This network, known as Power of Siberia, was built by Gazprom, a state-controlled Russian company.
The Power of Siberia system will eventually be able to deliver 38 billion cubic meters per year of gas to China. As a result, China is set to become the world’s second-largest importer of Russian gas.
Speaking at the December 2 ceremony, Putin described the launch of the new pipeline network as “a genuinely historical event” that would help strengthen ties between Moscow and Beijing. “This step takes Russo-Chinese strategic cooperation in energy to a qualitative new level and brings us closer to fulfilling the task ... of taking bilateral trade to $200 billion (€181 billion) by 2024,” he said.