Russia becomes China's largest pipeline natural gas supplier in February

Gazprom (Gazprom) became China's largest pipeline natural gas supplier in February, surpassing Turkmenistan, which has long been the top ranked country, for the first time. If we include liquefied natural gas exports to China, Russia leads all other foreign suppliers in the Chinese market.

In 2023, Russia exported 22.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China through the Trans Siberian Power gas pipeline, an increase of 50% from the previous year and a 60% increase in revenue, reaching 6.4 billion US dollars. Turkmenistan's pipeline gas supply revenue to China during the same period was close to 10 billion US dollars.

Novikova, an expert at the Plekhanov University of Economics in Russia, pointed out that Asia can be seen as a market on par with Europe, and China's natural gas demand growth potential is enormous. However, Asia cannot quickly replace the demand of the European market, and the pipeline transportation infrastructure for Asia is also insufficient.

According to reports, Russia originally planned to increase its annual production of liquefied natural gas to 100 million tons by 2030. Due to sanctions, the project may not be fully implemented, but considering the demand of the Asian market and the development of domestic liquefaction technology, reaching 80 million tons is feasible.

However, the European Union may include Russian liquefied natural gas in a new package of sanctions, and the Swedish Foreign Minister mentioned the possibility at a meeting of EU officials on the 22nd.