A Russian pipeline to China will replace the Nord Stream 2 gas link to Europe, which was abandoned during the Ukraine conflict, Moscow’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday.
Asked in an interview with Russian television channel Rossiya-1 whether Russia would replace the European Nord Stream 2 with the Asian Force Siberia 2, Novak said: “Yes.”
Earlier in the day, the minister, on a visit to Uzbekistan, said Russia and China would soon sign agreements to supply “50 billion cubic meters of gas” per year through the future Force 2 pipeline in Siberia.
This volume will represent roughly the maximum capacity of Nord Stream 1 – a total of 55 billion cubic meters – which has been closed since September 2.
One-third of Russian gas supplied to the European Union passed through the Strategic Pipeline, which connects Russia to Germany.
Force Siberia 2 will fuel China’s energy-rich economy, partly via Mongolia.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2024.
It will therefore replace the Nord Stream 2 project, long supported by Germany but frowned upon by Washington, and which the West has scrapped since the Russian offensive in Ukraine began in late February. is given
Novak said Russian gas exports to the EU “will decrease by about 50 billion cubic meters” in 2022.
At the same time, the Russian minister said that Gazprom, the operator of the Force of Siberia 1 gas pipeline that has connected the Chiandina field to northeastern China since late 2019, would increase its deliveries to “20 billion cubic meters.” . Gas” every year.
Connecting the Kovytka field near Lake Baikal to the pipeline in early 2023 will help achieve this increase.
By 2025, when it reaches its maximum capacity, the pipeline will produce 61 billion cubic meters of gas per year, more than Nord Stream 1, of which 38 billion cubic meters in 2014 came from Gazprom and its will go to China under the agreement reached between the Chinese counterpart of CNPC.
The two sides also signed agreements to build a new transit route from Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East to northern China, which will provide an additional 10 billion cubic meters of gas, the Energy Ministry said on Thursday.
