Russian gas giant Gazprom and China’s CNPC have begun joint design and construction of the cross-border section of a gas pipeline across the Ussuri River in line with an intergovernmental agreement on the “Far Eastern route” signed in 2023, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said at the seventh Russian-Chinese energy business forum, as per Interfax.

The contract on the Far Eastern route that Gazprom signed in February 2022 calls for exporting up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to China for at least 25 years. The two countries’ governments signed an intergovernmental agreement that regulates primarily the construction of the cross-border section of the pipeline across the Ussuri River.

The companies recently agreed to increase gas supplies along this route to 12 bcm per year.

In order to supply gas to China it is necessary to build a short, approximately 25-km branch from the already completed Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok trunk pipeline that runs along the Chinese border, as well as a gas dehydration plant to bring the gas up to the contractual specifications and a gas metering station (GMS) in Dalnerechensk.

Government expert approval was received on September 26 for the first phase of the project: Branch gas pipeline from Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok trunk pipeline to the state border of China Phase 1 – Branch gas pipeline section from Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok trunk pipeline to GMS.

Approval was received from state expert review office Glavgosexpertiza on November 13 for the design documentation and engineering survey results for the second phase, the branch pipeline section from the metering station to the Chinese border, including the part of the underwater crossing to the border.

Exports along this gas pipeline are supposed to begin at the end of January 2027.
Source: Reuters