Alexey Belogoryev, Research and Development Director at the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Novye Izvestia newspaper about China's interest in building the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline.
Reuters and the Financial Times said that instead of Power of Siberia-2, China has relied on gas from Turkmenistan and is rushing to launch the gas pipeline Line D that will become the fourth branch from Central Asia to China.
Alexey Belogoryev considers the fact that China actually controls the field there to the pluses of the Turkmen line. But the main argument is politics.“Negotiations on the construction of Power of Siberia-2 are somewhat deadlocked because China does not fully understand how much it needs a gas pipeline in terms of overall demand after 2030. China is revising its energy policy and long-term balances quite strongly in connection with climate policy,” Belogoryev says.
“And here, of course, there are obvious contradictions between the position of Russia and China, as between any buyer and seller. But to say that the project is buried, I would not. China has never opposed these two projects. It's just that negotiations on Power of Siberia-2 are still in the same state as they were in recent years. The project as a whole remains on the agenda, but, let's put it this way, Power-Siberia-2 is not a priority issue for China,” the analyst clarified.
“Beijing is a little more confident in controlling the resource base in Turkmenistan. In Russia, it still does not control the deposits, and let's hope that it will not. That is, Russia retains more of independence in the oil and gas sector from China, - the expert says. - In addition, we must not forget that China, in principle, is pursuing a policy of strengthening its positions in Central Asia and gradually ousting Russia from there, including through the development of oil and gas cooperation. Here, in addition to the economy, there is also a political component, which is quite important.”
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