The beginning of gas deliveries to China along the western route from Western Siberia will strengthen competition for Russian gas between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, Miller said in an interview on Rossiya-24 television.
"The resource base of Western Siberia is a resource that is used for delivering gas for exports to Europe. In other words, at this point we are on the cutting edge when actual competitiveness will begin for our energy resources between two mega-markets: Asian and European," Miller said.
The Western route will connect fields in western Siberia with northwest China through Russia's Altai Republic, delivering 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Second and third sections may be added to the pipeline at a later date, bringing capacity up to 100 billion cubic meters a year.
The Eastern route will connect Russia's gas fields in eastern Siberia with northeast China through the city of Blagoveshchensk in the Russian Far East.
In May 2014, Russia's state-owned energy company Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a 30-year gas supply deal estimated to be worth $400 billion. Under the deal, Russia will to export 38 billion cubic meters of gas to China annually.
The corresponding Russia-China intergovernmental agreement was signed in Moscow in October 2014.
