Radio Free Asia: Doubts Rise on Russia-China Gas Deal

Ten months after agreeing to build a natural gas pipeline to eastern China, Russia is reportedly trying to shift deliveries to a cheaper western route.

Last May, Russian monopoly Gazprom signed a 30-year contract with state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) to build a major pipeline and supply gas from new fields under development in East Siberia.

The entire deal has been valued at U.S. $400 billion (2.4 trillion yuan).

But on March 18, Reuters quoted industry and banking sources as saying that Gazprom could postpone the U.S. $55-billion (341-billion yuan) "Power of Siberia" pipeline project, preferring to pump gas from existing fields through a shorter pipeline to Xinjiang instead.

Moscow has been pressing China to accept the western route through Russia's remote Altai region to Xinjiang for nearly a decade, but Beijing has held out for an eastern project as a priority to bring gas to smoggy industrial areas and coastal cities that rely on coal-fired power. MORE