On 25 April a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Wang Yilin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CNPC, was held in Beijing, China.
It was emphasized at the meeting that the preparation of facilities for Russian gas exports to China via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline from December 1, 2019, is going according to schedule. “Gazprom” public affairs office reports that natural gas supplies into the pipeline are scheduled to be launched in the third quarter of 2019.
For the time being Turkmenistan is the largest gas exporter to China with annual gas supplies of about 35 billion cubic meters. The estimated capacity of the Russian gas pipeline is 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
China’s growing demand for will apparently allow both exporters to supply the maximum possible volumes of gas, which gives CNPC more flexible terms of bargaining whereas China has been the exclusive gas importer for Turkmenistan until recently.
Let us recall that Aleksey Miller visited Turkmenistan in late March, and a week before negotiations with CNPC Gazprom resumed Turkmen gas imports in small volumes slightly over 1 billion cubic meters until late June 2019.
The price and possibilities of further gas supplies have not been reported.
Interestingly enough, the official Turkmen media outlets did not report about resuming gas exports to Russia.