Russia and China have signed the long-anticipated gas deal, which will see Russia supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of gas annually for the next 30 years.
China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) Chairman Zhou Jiping, and Wu Xinxiong, Head of China’s National Energy Administration and Deputy Head of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, signed the deal on China’s behalf.
China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin witnessed the signing of the deal in Shanghai after both countries struck a last minute agreement on the price to finally put an end to the decade-long haggling and negotiating process.
The deal weighs approximately $400 billion and also involves Russia’s and China’s premium gas producers — Gazprom OAO, and CNPC — which will handle the transport of gas from the Kovyktin and Chayandin gas fields in eastern Siberia to China’s northeast, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan area in the north and the Yangtze river delta in the east.
According to the article on China Daily, the two sides have also used President Putin’s visit to China to “establish a comprehensive energy cooperation partnership” and build on their efforts to strengthen cooperation in energy and infrastructure in Russia.
The agreement is motivated by Russia’s strong willingness to secure other buyers for its commodity outside Europe and China’s rapidly growing demand for natural gas during the country’s energy structure transformation, said Sun Yongxiang, a professor at the Euro-Asian Social Development Research Institute of the State Council’s Development Research Centre.
