Russia may become China’s chief gas supplier in near future: Gazprom

Russian gas giant Gazprom has announced that Moscow may soon become neighboring China’s largest natural gas supplier, while receiving special praise from President Vladimir Putin.

"Talks are underway for a proposal to supply up to 50 bln cubic meters of gas per year to China via Mongolia. The pipeline is being designed. Russia may become China's major gas supplier in the near future," Gazprom said in a statement on Friday on the holding's 30th anniversary.

"The second long-term contract for gas sales was signed in February 2022. The ‘Far East’ route will provide China with 10 bln cubic meters of gas per year. The design of the infrastructure is in progress," it said.

The Russian energy company also highlighted collaboration with Turkey in the foreseeable future.

"Establishing a large international gas hub in this country is on the agenda," the statement added.

Putin, who was speaking at an event celebrating Gazprom's establishment and growth, lauded the company for launching new projects despite the West's anti-Moscow sanctions.

Gazprom will continue to thrive as demand for gas would rise in Asia and Western attempts to hurt it will fail, the Russian leader insisted.

“Despite unfair – to put it bluntly – competition, direct attempts from the outside to hinder and restrain its development, Gazprom is moving forward, launching new projects,” Putin said.

"Over the previous 30 years, global gas consumption has almost doubled, and in the next 20 years, according to expert estimates, it will add at least another 20 percent, and maybe more," Putin said, adding that "in the so-called transition period, the demand will be enormous. Moreover, more than half of this increase will fall on the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, first of all, of course, on the People's Republic of China, bearing in mind the growth rates of its economy."

Gazprom's gas exports to Europe, which used to be its key source of revenues, fell sharply last year after the Nord Stream pipelines were targeted amid political fallout from the war in Ukraine.

In the meantime, Russia is demanding an international investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline explosions after a report by the US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that Washington was behind the 2022 blasts.

In a detailed report published in his blog, Hersh claimed that the bombing of the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea was ordered by the White House and carried out by the CIA with the help of the US Navy.

The White House has dismissed the report which says US President Joe Biden had directed the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, which were built to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea.

The Nord Stream pipelines are majority-owned by Gazprom and made up the main source of the company's foreign revenues. At the time there was much speculation about who may have been behind the sabotage, but now a leading US journalist has blamed the blast on Washington.

MG