Bloomberg: Russia Offers China New Gas Route as Deal on West Link Drags

Gazprom PJSC, the world’s biggest natural gas supplier, is preparing a deal with China to build a pipeline near the Pacific coast as talks about a West Siberian link drag.

The state-run Russian company plans to sign a memorandum of understanding about supplying gas to China through a pipeline from the country’s Far East during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing this week, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow on Monday. The firm contract on fuel supplies from West Siberia is “unlikely” during the two-day trip set to start Wednesday, Ushakov said.

Last year, Putin reached his first $400 billion deal to supply gas to China from East Siberia, marking an energy pivot toward Asia as Russia’s relations with the U.S. and the European Union soured. Gazprom planned to follow that accord with another 30-year contract to supply gas from Siberian fields that serve its European clients after about a decade of talks. MORE