Construction of the planned Far Eastern route to supply Russian natural gas to China is progressing, Chinese Ambassador to Moscow Zhang Hanhui said, quoted by Reuters, BTA reports.
The Far Eastern route is designed to supply gas from Russia's Pacific coast to China via a new branch connected to Russia's Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline system.
Exports are scheduled to start in 2027, with China initially importing an additional 2 billion cubic meters per year, and later volumes will increase to 12 billion per year.
“The construction of the Far Eastern route for natural gas supplies from Russia to China is progressing steadily“, the diplomat said.
Russia currently supplies gas overland to China through the “Power of Siberia“ pipeline, which began operations in 2019 and has a design capacity of 38 billion cubic meters per year.
Energy is at the heart of Moscow's drive to deepen ties with Beijing after Western sanctions over Russian forces' invasion of Ukraine in 2022 accelerated Russia's drift away from Europe, with China increasing purchases of Russian crude oil and expanding bilateral cooperation in the gas sector.