Russia’s Gazprom said Feb. 1 that its gas exports to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline reached a new daily record the previous day.

In a statement, Gazprom said supplies to China had again exceeded the daily contractual obligations.

“On Jan. 31, for the fourth time in a month, Gazprom set a new historical record for daily pipeline gas supplies to China,” it said.

It had already broken the supply record on Jan. 2, Jan. 3 and Jan. 12 after deliveries to China were increased to the new level for 2024 stipulated in Gazprom’s agreement with China’s CNPC.

Supplies via Power of Siberia had been expected to ramp up through the course of 2024, so the increase in deliveries was not a surprise.

Russian gas exports to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline totaled 22.7 Bcm in 2023, 0.7 Bcm higher than the contracted volume and up 47% from deliveries of 15.4 Bcm in 2022.

Gazprom said that after the delivery volume increase in 2024, the Power of Siberia pipeline would reach its design capacity of 38 Bcm/year in 2025.

Gazprom began exports to CNPC via the Power of Siberia pipeline at the end of 2019 and supplied 4.1 Bcm in its first full year of operation in 2020, around 10 Bcm in 2021 and 15.4 Bcm in 2022.

Russia’s energy minister Nikolai Shulginov said in September that exports were expected to reach some 30 Bcm in 2024.

In 2022, Gazprom and CNPC also agreed a new long-term contract for another route from the Far East for the supply of 10 Bcm/year of gas.

Gazprom is also planning another route to China via Mongolia with a planned capacity of 50 Bcm/year — Power of Siberia 2 — with talks over the terms of supply ongoing.

Demand driver

Gazprom has said the main driver of global gas demand growth would be China with its “dynamically developing and rapidly growing” economy.

It said that Chinese gas demand almost doubled between 2016 and 2022 to a total of 370 Bcm/year, and would almost double again by 2040, according to forecasts.

With Gazprom having lost much of its market share in Europe, China is the obvious outlet for more pipeline gas.

The majority of Russia’s pipeline gas export capacity is designed to send gas to Europe, but supplies were sharply curtailed through 2022, leading to record prices.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the benchmark Dutch TTF month-ahead price at an all-time high of Eur319.98/MWh on Aug. 26, 2022.

Prices are now lower thanks to healthy storage levels and demand curtailments but remain relatively high, with Platts assessing the TTF month-ahead price on Jan. 31 at Eur29.77/MWh ($32.14/MWh).

Source: Platts