Xi Jinping Visit to Moscow Raises Prospects of China-Russia Energy Deals
From Financial Times
By Isabel Gorst
Xi Jinping has picked Moscow as the first foreign capital he will visit as Chinese president, raising hopes that Russia and China will finally agree the terms of a gas supply deal that has been in the works for more than six years.
Gazprom sees the fast-growing Chinese market as critical to its plan to globalise Russian gas trade, but has so far been unwilling to reduce gas prices enough get China to sign up for supplies. But with rival Russian gas producers suddenly courting China, Gazprom may have to cave in.
A string of Russian officials have been in Beijing this month in a flurry of energy diplomacy ahead of Xi Jinping’s Moscow visit.
Among them was Alexander Medvedev, deputy head of Gazprom, who met the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation on Wednesday to try to break a deadlock in negotiations of a deal that would see Russia supply up to 68bn cubic meters a year of gas to China through new pipelines across Siberia.
