The gas transmission task by Kazakhstan, which Moscow presented last autumn, promising to pump 45 billion cubic metres per year, will not be implemented," said Zhang Hanhui, Chinese ambassador to Russia. He stated that the gas pipeline by which the Kremlin promised to gasify the north-eastern regions of Kazakhstan was "too expensive".
— Gas deliveries from the Russian Federation by Kazakhstan are not possible due to the fact that there is only 1 gas pipeline and it is overflowing. If we transport Russian gas through this route, we will gotta build a fresh (gas pipeline). And that's beautiful expensive. The Russian website analyses (this option), but it is not realistic," said Zhang Hanhui quoted by Interfax.
This could bring about serious problems for Russia.
The proposal for the transmission of gas to China by Kazakhstan to Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Aleksander Nowak made to Beijing in November 2024 — shortly after negotiations on the task Power of Siberia 2 They're stuck in a dead end.
Vladimir Putin already proposed in 2022 that Xi Jinping increase purchases of Russian gas to 100 billion cubic metres per year to aid Gazprom replace the lost European market. Despite statements about a "strategic partnership" without borders and Putin's journey to Beijing However, the Chinese leader did not give approval to build a fresh pipeline.
Further string of article under video material
According to the Financial Times, the price of gas was an obstacle — China demanded that it be brought down to national level, about 60 dollars per 1000 cubic meters. This is 4 times lower than the current price — $260 for a 1000 cubic meters sent by the Siberia Power 1 gas pipeline.
At the end of 2023, the Russian authorities claimed that the Siberia Power 2 gas pipeline with a capacity of 50 billion m six. The task documentation will be approved in the first 4th of 2024. A year and a half passed, and neither the plan nor construction received green light.
Mongolian ‘no’
Mongolia — a country through which a 2,000 km long pipeline of the Siberian Power 2 would run — did not include it in its long-term national improvement moving up to 2028,” reported The South China Morning Post. A erstwhile associate of Mongolia safety Council Munchnar Bajarlhawga justified this by Moscow failing to scope an agreement with Beijing on this matter.
For the failure of the Kremlin project, he tries to blame Mongolia, accusing her of allegedly obstructing work, late suggested by Alexey Masło, manager of the Russian Institute of Countries of Asia and Africa. Mikhail Krutichin, Russian energy marketplace expert, However, he believes that this is not true. In his opinion, Mongolia supported all Gazprom's proposals and rapidly approved the plan documentation for its section of the way and the full infrastructure. However, Russia's "binding" agreements with Beijing have not been reached, which are essential to launch the project.
Last year Gazprom pumped 31 billion cubic meters of gas into China, and this year it intends to increase deliveries to the capacity limit of the Siberian Force — up to 38 billion cubic meters per year. However, this will only compensate him for 15% of his erstwhile exports to the European UnionAt its peak, it reached 200 billion cubic feet per year. After the start of the war with Ukraine by the Kremlin, it fell to the lowest levels since the second half of the 1970s — in 2023 it was 28 billion cubic metres, and a year later it was 32 billion cubic metres.
