Russia-China gas trade reaches all-time high

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Sep 2022 17:11

The hegemony of the dollar further sinks as the gas trade between China and Russia is carried out with national currencies.

The pipeline in Siberia connecting Russia to China is called "Power of Siberia"

The Russian Embassy in China Russian said on Wednesday that the trade of coal and natural gas exports to China reached a historical peak in the month of August.

"China imported a total of $409.37 million worth of natural gas from Russia in August, according to China's General Administration of Customs (GACC). This figure is the highest since at least January 2017, the maximum available observation period of Chinese customs," the mission said on Telegram.

Exports of Russian coal to China also reached 8.5 million tonnes in August, the highest in five years according to the mission, whereas in July the supply increased by 15%, with a 57% year-on-year growth rate.

When the Ukrainian issue initially began in 2014, Russia and China signed a 30-year gas deal worth $400 billion which was needed to make feasible the construction of the "Power of Siberia", the Gazprom-operated pipeline in Eastern Siberia that transports natural gas from Yakutia to Primorsky Krai and China.

This 30-year-long project, which Russian President Vladimir Putin called the "world's biggest construction project," is expected to bring $400 billion (€363 billion) into Russia's economy.

"This step takes Russo-Chinese strategic cooperation in energy to a qualitatively new level and brings us closer to fulfilling the task, set together with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, of taking bilateral trade to $200 billion (€181 billion) by 2024," said Putin when the pipeline was launched in 2019.

In February 2022, Putin and Xi Jinping again reaffirmed the goal of reaching $200 billion in bilateral trade by 2024 after the previous threshold of $100 billion was attained in 2018.

Last year, the trade turnover between the two countries went up 35.8%, standing at a record $146.887 billion.

On September 9, Chairman of the Chinese Standing Committee Li Zhanshu said that annual trade between the two countries may reach a record of $200 billion by the end of 2022, which would mean a 37% increase in annual bilateral trade.