MOSCOW, March 21 (RIA Novosti) - Leading Russian gas industry experts said Tuesday the country's natural gas supplies to China would help Russia strengthen its position on the international gas market.
Mikhail Zak, director of research at Veles Capital Investment Company, said gas supplies to China would not affect European customers of Russian energy giant Gazprom, since independent producers were expected to increase their share of Russia's domestic gas market, thus allowing Gazprom to increase its exports.
"Europe will not be affected by this agreement, since it does not mean the redistribution of supplies but the expansion of exports," the expert said, adding that liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies to China were also possible in the future.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and China National Petroleum Corporation head Chen Gang put pen to paper in Beijing, where President Vladimir Putin arrived Tuesday on a two-day visit.
Gas exports to China will come from West Siberia during the first stage of a project to build a gas pipeline system to meet the energy-consuming giant's needs and later from East Siberia, with exports to amount to 30-40 billion cubic meters of gas a year at each stage. A source in the Russian delegation traveling with Putin said a $10-billion gas pipeline to China could be commissioned in 2011.
Alexei Kormshchikov, an analyst with banking group Uralsib, said the agreement would strengthen Gazprom's positions on the international market, thereby strengthening Russia's positions, as the state-owned company was the main instrument of Russia's global energy policy.
"Russia is seeking global energy leadership, and agreements with China will strengthen its global positions," Kormshchikov said adding that Gazprom would already have its own LNG capacity from the huge gas-condensate deposit on the Barents Sea shelf by the time pipeline gas and LNG would be competing on the Chinese market.
Broker Credit Services' analyst Maxim Shein said the agreement could be implemented soon as Gazprom had substantial financial reserves.
"Russia is stepping up efforts in the eastern direction, and their success is actually very important," the experts said, adding that cooperation between the two world powers was expected to be fruitful.
