Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee (Beijing, April 28, 2019):

“China continues to steadily ramp up its gas consumption, which rose by 15 per cent in 2017 and by 18 per cent in 2018. Gas imports are growing even faster: last year, they surged by 32 per cent to 125.7 billion cubic meters. As a result, China became the world's largest natural gas importer for the first time in history.

The demand for natural gas in China is going to grow further. There is a need for reliable gas supplies for the long term. Pipeline gas is very important in this regard. Especially in the autumn/winter period with its spikes in gas demand, in particular in northern and northeastern China.

On December 1 this year, Russian pipeline gas will finally reach China. Over the course of 30 years, we will use the Power of Siberia gas pipeline – the so-called eastern route – to deliver more than 1 trillion cubic meters of gas to Chinese consumers. The resource base consists of large new fields in eastern Russia. Preparations for this landmark event are in full swing. Pre-development of the Chayandinskoye field continues, and the bulk of construction is completed on the linear part of Power of Siberia from Chayandinskoye to the Russian-Chinese border, where intensive efforts are being made to build the Atamanskaya compressor station.

Power of Siberia opens the way to China for Russian pipeline gas. We have two more supply projects on the agenda: deliveries from Russia's Far East and via the western route. If implemented, those projects could make Gazprom the number-one gas exporter in the Chinese market by 2035.

Gazprom has everything it needs for that: unique expertise and competencies in the gas sector, as well as an enormous resource base. I would like to draw special attention to the Yamal Peninsula. Yamal is not merely a new gas production center. It is an abundantly rich gas basin that will provide consumers with natural gas for over 100 years.

The fact that Yamal is a prolific gas basin means that the western route for Russian pipeline gas to China may become the most promising and important gas transmission corridor. This is why Yamal is particularly well placed to become the center of gas supplies both to the West and to the East. Especially to China.”