Two Of The World’s Greatest Powers Aim To Establish Partnership For The Construction Of Pipelines 3,000 Km Apart!

Possible Union Between Russia and China, With the Creation of Pipelines, Comes from the Chinese Desire to Diversify Their Energy Sources and Russian Plan to Replace Its Biggest Customer: Europe!

The combination of two goals: modifying the energy source, which is consumed by millions of factories, and replacing a troublesome customer (Europe), is leading Russia and China to establish a partnership for the creation of new pipelines.

Initially, the partnership between Russia and China could be understood as a significant commercial partnership, especially at a time when both are facing a difficult relationship with the West.

According to analysts, in light of the agreement, the party that would fare better and benefit more would be Russia, which could avoid international sanctions imposed due to the war in Ukraine and still manage to sell part of the gas production that it stopped sending to Europe, its biggest customer. After all, European governments have spent the last few months trying to reduce their energy dependence on the Kremlin. Until now, Russia supplies 40% of the gas consumed by the European Union.

HOW DOES A PIPELINE WORK?

Consequences of the Possible Partnership

With the creation of pipelines as a result of the partnership between China and Russia, they will be able to send gas from Siberia, Russia, to Shanghai, China’s coast, over a distance of 3,000 km. It is in the final construction phase, but it has already been supplying fuel to various points in northern China along the way.

As such, although the pipeline began operations pumping only a fraction of its capacity, the data shows that the war has driven its usage and Russia has been sending more gas to China since February, when the invasion of Ukraine began.

More Pipelines

Moscow is still assessing the construction of several pipelines that would allow it to expand its presence in the Asian market, which has not received attention for years due to Europe’s enormous needs.

“We know that the Chinese market is the most dynamic in the world and, in the next 20 years, the increase in gas consumption in China will represent 40% of the increase in global gas consumption”, said Gazprom President Alexey Miller recently.

One of the most important projects currently is a second branch of the Power of Siberia pipeline, which will be called Power of Siberia 2. This new pipeline will be able to transport 50 bcm of natural gas to China per year.