Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that Russia will increase gas supplies "to the East", mainly to China, and set sales prices to Europe using an electronic platform.
Moscow is looking to boost gas sales to countries such as China and Turkey as the war in Ukraine has restricted trade with the West, but it will take years to build such infrastructure.
In October, following explosions in the Nord Stream undersea gas pipelines running through the bottom of the Baltic Sea that caused significant damage and halted direct gas sales to Germany, Putin proposed the creation of a "gas hub" in Turkey.
"Among the important developing customers of Russian gas are our neighbors including Turkey We plan to develop a gas hub," Putin said at a meeting with government officials, which was broadcast on television.
"But if we are talking about creating an electronic platform, it can be done in the next few months. And that, to a large extent, is where we will determine the final price for our European consumers, because what they have done on their platforms is crazy."
Putin criticized Europe for opting for spot pricing mechanisms instead of long-term contracts, which have been the backbone of Russian Gazprom's gas exports and give greater security to the Kremlin-controlled company.
Putin gave no further details of the platform he proposed.
[/P]He said he would push gas sales "eastward."
Russia has started gas sales to China in late 2019 through the Siberian Power gas pipeline, which supplied it with about 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in 2021 but will reach its full capacity of 38 bcm in 2025. Currently Russia is China's No. 3 supplier of natural gas.
In February, Putin reached a deal to sell 10 bcm of gas to China from the Russian Far East. Russia also plans to build a new pipeline, the "Siberian Power 2", passing through Mongolia, with the prospect of selling an additional 50 billion cubic meters per year.
Putin said these plans would allow Russia to increase gas sales to China to 48 billion cubic meters per year by 2025 and 88 billion cubic meters by 2030.
"In fact, this is more than 60 percent of the gas supplies that flowed to the West last year," Putin said, referring to the 88 billion cubic meters.
Putin said in his speech that Russia would develop its economic relations with partners in Asia, Africa and Latin America to prevent Western attempts to isolate it economically.
"We will remove restrictions on the supply chain and financing. Let me remind you that by imposing sanctions, Western countries were trying to push Russia to the periphery of global development. But we will never follow the path of self-isolation," he said."
"On the contrary, we are expanding and will expand cooperation with all those who are interested in it."
Source: APM
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