Strength of Siberia. This is the name, which is already a whole program, of the new gas pipeline between the US and China launched by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in a video link between Sochi and Beijing. While China and the US are arguing over tariffs and Russia continues to suffer sanctions from the European Union, a new corridor is opening which from Moscow heads east, directly towards Beijing, reinforcing an axis that could become strategic in the near future. In fact, it is no coincidence that the contract for "Strength of Siberia" was signed in 2014, just as the crisis between Russia and Western countries was reaching its climax in the wake of the Ukrainian question.
The new pipeline was built by Gazprom and China National Petroluem and when fully operational (in 2025) will be able to supply 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year, more than Brazil's entire annual gas consumption. More than 8 thousand kilometers long (of which 3 in Russia and 5.111 in China) will transport gas from the production centers of Irkutsk and Yakutia to consumers in the Russian Far East and then to China, via the eastern route. It is not known at what price, given that the figures have been classified, but according to the provisions of the contract signed 5 years ago, the deal is expected to be worth $400 billion over the next 30 years.
“This step takes the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership in the energy sector to a whole new level and brings us closer to the goal of $200 billion in trade by 2024,” Putin said kicking off supplies.
The Kremlin's number one stressed the "historic" nature of the event. Russia is in fact the first natural gas exporter in the world. In 2018 alone, Moscow exported 247 billion cubic meters of gas, 200 of which were directed to Europe, including Italy (with 22 billion cubic meters). China, for its part, stands today as the main growth market for natural gas and between 2018 and 2024, according to the International Energy Agency, will be worth about 40 percent of global growth in consumption of natural gas. To underline that Russia and China are already negotiating for the construction of a new gas pipeline, "Strength of Siberia 2". An operation that will once again involve Gazprom on one side and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPS) on the other, with the aim of serving the industrial areas on China's east coast, but also of strengthening an alternative axis capable of giving to twist the Western powers.
