Mongolian Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene has announced that Russia’s planned construction of the new Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline to China, which was scheduled to start this year, may be delayed, according to an article published in the Financial Times on Sunday. This is reported by the Times (FT), Reuters and Agerpres.

Moscow is in talks to build a new gas pipeline that would transport 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas annually from northern Russia to China via Mongolia, an amount close to the level carried by the damaged Nord Stream 1 pipeline in 2022.

“China and Russia have yet to agree on the key details of this major project,” Mongolia’s prime minister told the FT, adding that record global natural gas prices had complicated negotiations.

“China and Russia still need time”

Gazprom, which will operate Power of Siberia-2, has said it wants to start supplying gas by 2030, but reaching agreement on key issues, including price, remains difficult.

“China and Russia still need time to conduct a thorough study of economic research. Both parties are still making calculations and evaluations and analyzing the economic benefits,” Oyun-Erdene explained.

Gazprom and Kremlin officials did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. It was not possible to contact representatives of the Chinese Foreign Ministry for comment.

At the end of last year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko told the Russian state news agency TASS that the construction of the Mongolian section of “Power of Siberia-2” to China could begin in the first quarter of this year.

Record deliveries from “Power of Siberia 1”.

Gazprom announced this month that it had set a new record for daily gas deliveries to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline.

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. .

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 delivered to China in 2023 exceeded by 700 million cubic meters (+3.2%) the volume that it undertook to deliver to China under the contract of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline.