At the same time, Chinese orders on gas overshot their initial estimates by over one-sixth over the past month. China became the first major economy to bounce back since the outbreak of the pandemic, having posted a GDP growth of 4.9 percent in the third quarter mostly owing to its gargantuan manufacturing sector.
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia is expanding the export of gas to Asia, particularly to China, Japan and India, as this region is rapidly developing and has great potential.
Russia started to export gas to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline in late 2019. According to Russia's energy company, Gazprom, the pipeline will allow Russia to export up to 38 billion cubic meters of gas to China every year. Nevertheless, the European countries remain the major importers of Russian gas, with 198 billion cubic meters exported by Russia to Europe in 2019, according to Gazprom.
