Towards the end of last week it became known that in November this year Gazprom exceeded the norm for daily gas supplies to China via the Power of Siberia by 25%, having reached a record level of supplies along the so-called eastern corridor.
At the same time, the company's message separately emphasizes that the average daily gas supplies from the Russian Federation exceed contractual obligations throughout last October and the first two weeks of this November.
And more than that.
As indicated in the same message, the head of Gazprom, Alexey Miller, and the chairman of the board of directors of the Chinese CNPC, Dai Houlian, representing the interests of the Russian and Chinese parties, respectively, have already held a meeting at which the issue of further increasing gas supplies via the Power of Siberia was discussed. by 6 billion cubic meters.
m after reaching the plateau under the current contract.
Here you have to be very precise with the numbers and wording, therefore, we will simply quote an official statement announcing that during the meeting at the highest gas level “the issue of an additional increase in gas supplies by 6 billion cubic meters was also considered.
m through the Power of Siberia gas pipeline after reaching the plateau (38 billion cubic meters per year) under the current contract.
To make it clear: China would like to receive not 38, but about 44 billion cubic meters per year via the “eastern route”, and Gazprom is quite ready to satisfy this request.
However, in the relationship between the Russian gas giant and the Chinese consumers of its products, this is by no means the most difficult decision at the moment.
Let us explain.
The resource base of the Power of Siberia is the Chayandinskoe (Lensky District of Yakutia) fields located in Eastern Siberia and subsequently (from 2023) also the Kovykta (Irkutsk Region) fields.
And by this indicator, by the location of the resource base, Power of Siberia does not compete at all with any traditional export routes for transporting Russian natural gas.
And in general, China, of course, is far from the only potential consumer of resources from these largest explored East Siberian deposits.
But let's be honest somehow, at least to ourselves: it is unlikely that anyone else will be able to claim these products in such volumes in the coming decades.
Therefore, all we have to do here is to be happy for the people that they managed to reach an agreement without hindrance and to mutual benefit - both for Gazprom and for its Chinese partners.
In general, these people seem to approach the issues in a complex manner.
Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that at the same meeting they also discussed such quite vital and specific things as interaction in the field of underground gas storage, gas power generation (we have a particularly rich experience here, why not work together on Chinese territory?), NGV fuel use, personnel development, equipment standardization and certification.
And this, you see, is a completely different level of integration - even in comparison with traditional European partners, who, say, tried to keep us out of their generation.
One (not by nightfall, be remembered) the notorious Third Energy Package is worth something: and indeed there is a feeling that the Chinese comrades trust us much more than the Europeans.
Well, why shouldn't we ourselves be a little more attentive to them in response.
In a word, it is quite normal such both planned and super-planned interaction, which looks especially pleasant for a benevolent observer in the light of the recent volley of publications in the Russian "democratic", of course, the media on the topic that the Russians with China will not succeed at all, which In particular, there is no gas in the Chayandinskoye field (they also wrote this) that the PRC does not need Russian gas.
However, "democratic hopes" so often lately do not withstand any collision with the harsh reality that it is somehow not very convenient to talk about it - about how to finish off a fallen one with his feet, even if he deserves it.
It would simply be very, for example, curious to hear now countless experts who have promised us in the literal sense of the word that Europe will be flooded with the notorious American shale gas.
Which is now the new American leader Biden promises to replace the same Europe with green energy.
For with the production of "shale" in the United States now there are some problems that the United States in the short-term historical perspective, it is absolutely certain, alas, no matter how anyone wants, not to overcome.
Biden's team doesn't even deny it.
However, God bless them: both with the East Siberian deposits, and with the American "shale" - with them, in general, and so more or less clear.
What is interesting in our conversation today about the Sino-Russian-European gas triangle begins a little further.
From a sparse message, all from the same meeting of the heads of Gazprom and CNPC: “During the meeting, projects of pipeline gas supplies from Russia to China via the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline through Mongolia, along the“ western route ”were also discussed.
And this, in particular, for traditional European buyers of Russian pipeline gas is a much more serious and, perhaps, one might say so, a much more alarming signal.
Moreover, there is a direct agreement on the mandatory acceleration of the implementation of this project between Comrade Xi and Vladimir Putin.
This means that there is more than enough "political will" for its implementation.
Remained the implementation of questions that are quite practical: this at the meeting, apparently, and was directly discussed.
The fact is that the project of the "western route" (aka "Power of Siberia - 2", aka - nee - the project of the "Altai" gas pipeline) has a completely different, much more traditional resource base.
Namely: fields of the Yamal Peninsula and the shelf of the Kara Sea.
That is, the same gas province from which gas is already supplied both by traditional pipeline routes to Europe and to the production of LNG in the cyclopean projects of the Russian, but much more ambitious and aggressive NOVATEK.
And the point here is not even a possible shortage of natural gas in Yamal: judging by the latest discoveries on the shelf of the Kara Sea, there will be enough gas for the Indians there, around this very Yamal, if, of course, they need it.
It's just that after the rather easily predictable collapse (especially after the arrival of Biden, who speaks directly about it) of the "great shale revolution", on the one hand, and on the other hand, after entering Yamal as a buyer of the Chinese, we get sharply different from the usual and a rather curious configuration with competition not from suppliers, but from consumers.
And this, you see, is a fundamentally different picture of the world order in continental Eurasian energy, and it is somehow completely naive not to understand it.
That is, (roughly speaking) Europe is now not even talking about replacing the relatively cheap Russian gas with expensive American shale LNG.
Its, this American LNG, as it is now clear, in Europe simply will not be any - neither expensive nor cheap.
But the Americans will not stop pushing the Europeans because of this.
Who cares what the reason will be: under Trump it was shale gas, under Biden it was green energy with some Greta Thunberg at the ready.
Delov something.
And if at the same time the Russians will have where (if anything) to supply their gas from Yamal, then absolutely, you know, an entertaining picture begins to emerge.
In which not Russian gas competes for European markets, but exactly the opposite: Europe is forced to compete for Russian gas.
And that is precisely why, if you have noticed, the Russian leadership is rather calmly reacting to the American attacks on Nord Stream 2, giving the Europeans the opportunity to solve their problems with America on their own: the gas pipeline itself is, as they say, we are in iron, outside of any doubt, we will build, since we promised.
But then let’s figure it out yourself, guys, and if possible, not at our expense.
The Europeans, by the way, understand this very well and, apparently, they are completely correct in assessing and making very correct conclusions: it is no coincidence that last weekend, the official representative of the German company Uniper told RIA Novosti that the German authorities once again confirmed their political support for Nord Stream - 2 "regardless of any" political circumstances ".
This is just another, so to speak, signal: there are less and less illusions about Biden's position in Europe.
And the issue of full-fledged exploitation of the still unfinished Nord Stream 2 is becoming more and more for the German industrial cluster in the very short-term historical perspective a question of economic survival.
And in this situation, Europe, naturally, cannot but worry about the imminent appearance of a new, "western route" for transporting pipeline gas from Yamal.
Especially because, like the “eastern” one, it also leads to China.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.