China will pay for Siberia Power supplies in rubles and yuan

“Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) will transfer payments for supplies of the Power of Siberia in rubles and yuan. The agreement on this was reached at the meeting between the head of the Russian company Alexei Miller and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of CNPC Dai Houliyan. The meeting was held via videoconference at the Eastern Economic Forum.

According to Gazprom’s press release, during the meeting additional agreements to the long-term contract for the purchase and sale of gas via the “eastern” route (the Power of Siberia gas pipeline) were signed. “In particular, the transition to making payments for Russian gas supplies to China in the national currencies of the countries – rubles and yuan – was fixed,” the company said.

Miller called the new payment mechanism “mutually beneficial, timely, reliable and practical solution. In his opinion, it will simplify settlements and “give an additional impetus” to the development of the economies of Russia and China.

In February, Gazprom and CNPC signed the second long-term contract to supply natural gas to China. After the project reaches its full capacity, the volume of gas supplies via the Far East route should increase by 10 billion cubic meters a year and reach 48 billion cubic meters a year in total, including supplies via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. In May Gazprom reported that gas exports to China have increased by almost 60% since the beginning of the year. In July and August, the Russian company also reported that supplies to China continued to increase.