[７日 ロイター] – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia is in talks about a new large-scale infrastructure project to supply China with natural gas via Mongolia.
“We are discussing the possibility of a major infrastructure project to supply China with Russian natural gas gas via Mongolia,” Putin said during a meeting televised on state television with Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun Erdene.
Putin also said Russia’s state oil company Rosneft had reached an agreement with the Mongolian government to expand cooperation on the supply of petroleum products.
The two leaders met at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia’s Far East. Putin said in a speech at the forum that Europe calling for a price cap on Russian gas was “stupid” and would cut off gas and oil supplies if a price cap were set on Russian energy. have expressed.
The Siberian Power gas pipeline, which began operation at the end of 2019 and connects Russia and China, has an annual transportation capacity of 61 billion cubic meters. Russian state-owned Gazprom has for years considered the possibility of building a new pipeline, Siberian Power 2, to transport Russian natural gas to China via Mongolia.
Gazprom said the proposed Siberian Power 2 will have an annual capacity of 50 billion cubic meters, slightly less than the Nord Stream 1 that will supply Germany. But the new pipeline to China is seen as an important source of revenue for Russia as European countries become less dependent on Russian energy following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.