“Russia’s exports to Europe now could potentially be fully diverted to the Asia-Pacific region. However, this will require the active development of export infrastructure, the construction of new gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, which is also time-consuming,” Timonin said.
Russia’s efforts to divert gas flows to Asia are not only due to Europe’s efforts to stop buying Russian energy, especially oil products, but it is also market-driven, the expert said. Current trends show that Asian countries will account for more than half of natural gas demand by 2025 and consumption will increase by 160 billion cubic meters, according to Timonin, mainly in China and India.
At the same time, the construction of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline to China took five years and the same time is needed to build large gas liquefaction plants.
“To keep gas exports at the same level, Russia should already start developing new projects and making investment decisions,” Timonin added.
Deliveries through the Power of Siberia pipeline have started at the end of 2019 and amounted to 4.1 billion cubic meters in 2020. Delivery volumes are set to increase until the planned annual capacity of 38 billion cubic meters is reached by 2025. Taking into account the new February agreement, the total delivery capacity along the Far East route to China could be 48 billion cubic meters per year.
In addition, the Power of Siberia 2 project, which aims to supply up to 50 billion cubic meters of gas annually to China via Mongolia, is currently being considered.
Source: ANI / Sputnik
Source: The Nordic Page