According to Neft Rossii magazine the Chinese government has approved China National Petroleum Corporation’s (CNPC) plan to construct part of the Power of Siberia pipeline that will deliver gas from Russia to China. The construction of the Chinese part of the pipeline will start in 2015. The route will pass through six Chinese provinces – Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong and Jiangsu, as well as the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Tianjin and Shanghai. The pipeline will consist of northern, southern and central parts. Discussions on the export of Russian natural gas to China via the western route , which is part of the Power of Siberia pipeline, have been brought on by a contract signed between Gazprom and CNPC in May. In the $400 billion contract both sides agreed on the annual export of 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to China for a 30-year period starting in 2018. The gas will be delivered by branches of the Power of Siberia pipeline. The construction of the 3,000-kilometer (1,860-mile) Power of Siberia pipeline was launched in Yakutia on September 1. As Ria Novosti reports, President Vladimir Putin considers the new gas pipeline as a very positive development because it will significantly strengthen his country’s economic cooperation with the governments of the Asia-Pacific region, particularly with China.
