Russian energy concern Gazprom announced on Wednesday that it had set a new record for daily gas deliveries to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline, Reuters reported.

Gazprom did not give a specific figure for the new record, but said its total gas exports to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline in 2023 amounted to 22.7 billion cubic meters, almost 1.5 times more than the 15.4 billion cubic meters delivered in 2022, writes Agerpres.

Russia has increased gas supplies to China to counter falling gas sales in Europe after the invasion of Ukraine prompted Western countries to impose sanctions on Moscow and reduce their dependence on Russian energy.

Gazprom emphasized that the total volume of gas supplied to China in 2023 exceeded by 700 million cubic meters, or 3.2%, the volume it had committed to supply to China under the Power of Siberia pipeline contract. The Russian state group reiterated that the pipeline will reach its maximum export capacity of 38 billion cubic meters per year in 2025.

Russia is in talks to build a new gas pipeline called Power of Siberia 2 that would transport 50 billion cubic meters of gas a year from the Yamal region in northern Russia to China via Mongolia, equivalent to the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to the Baltic Sea, the pipeline , which is now out of use after being damaged by explosions in 2022.

The Power of Siberia-2 project has been given priority as Moscow wants to double gas exports to China to counter the phenomenon of a sharp drop in Russian gas sales in Europe. But no agreement has yet been reached on a number of key aspects of the Power of Siberia-2 project, including the price of gas supplied through this pipeline.

Russian energy group Gazprom’s supply of pipeline gas to Europe in 2023 fell 55.6% to 28.3 billion cubic meters, compared with a peak of 175-180 billion cubic meters in 2018-2019, according to Reuters calculations.