Russia is set to supply a record volume of gas to China this year, with expectant deliveries to reach some 40 Bcm, Igor Sechin, the head of Russian oil firm – Rosneft said on July 23.
Speaking during a Russia-China energy business forum, Sechin also said Russia had the potential to supply more than 100 Bcm/year to China in the future.
“This year, Russian gas exports to China will reach their historical maximum — about 40 Bcm — which should strengthen the position of our country as the largest supplier of gas to China,” Sechin was quoted as saying by a local news agency.
Sechin is also executive secretary of the Presidential Commission on the Strategy for the Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex.
Meanwhile Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak was also reported as saying that Gazprom, the country’s oil giant, would send some 30 Bcm of gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline this year.
The remaining supply to bring volumes up to 40 Bcm would therefore be in the form of LNG, the agency reported. And according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights, Russian LNG exports to China have already reached 3.6 million mt (5 Bcm) so far this year.
Supplies to China have been sourced from three Russian LNG projects — Yamal LNG (1.9 million mt), Sakahlin 2 (1.5 million mt) and Portovaya LNG (0.2 million mt), according to data released.
“It comes as spot LNG prices for delivery into northeast Asia remain high. The Platts benchmark JKM price was last assessed on July 23 at $12.01/MMBtu” according to S&P Global Commodity Insights pricing data.
On pipeline supply, Novak said gas supplies by pipeline to China were increasing. “This year we expect 30 Bcm of gas. Next year, we will reach 38 Bcm — the maximum volume that we can reach under the contract”, he said. This is amidst Gazprom’s plans of kickstarting gas exports to China via a new 10 Bcm/year Far East route in 2027, CEO Alexei Miller was quoted to have said in June.
Adding that Chinese gas consumption would double by the middle of the century. “China and its dynamically developing economy will undoubtedly remain the leader in gas consumption growth”, he said.
China’s gas consumption topped 400 Bcm for the first time in 2023, reaching 405 Bcm, according to the Energy Institute’s Statistical Review of World Energy.
According to the report, the majority of Russia’s pipeline gas export capacity was designed to send gas to Europe, Gazprom however is also building out its export links to China, with plans for a 50 Bcm/year Power of Siberia 2 pipeline.
Gazprom’s exports via the first Power of Siberia line totaled 22.7 Bcm last year, 0.7 Bcm higher than the contracted volume and up 47% from deliveries of 15.4 Bcm in 2022, report indicated.
The oil and gas firm was said to have began exports to China via the pipeline at the end of 2019, supplying 4.1 Bcm in its first full year of operation in 2020 and around 10 Bcm in 2021.
It was also reported to have paid more attention to the supply of gas to its near neighbors — including Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan — after its deliveries to Europe were sharply reduced through 2021, 2022 and into 2023, leading to a sharp drop in Gazprom’s gas production, which totaled just 359 Bcm in 2023.