The Altai gas pipeline (also known as Power of Siberia 2) is a proposed natural

gas pipeline Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countr ...

to export

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

from Russia's Western Siberia to North-Western China.

History

The memorandum on deliveries of Russian natural gas to China was signed by

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...

CEO Alexei Miller and

CNPC The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) () is a major national oil and gas corporation of China and one of the largest integrated energy groups in the world. Its headquarters are in Dongcheng District, Beijing. CNPC was ranked fourth ...

CEO Chen Geng during Russian president

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

's visit to China in March 2006. The project was put on hold due to disagreements over natural gas price and competition from other gas sources in the Chinese market. In 2013, Gazprom and CNPC agreed to instead pursue a more eastern route, the

Power of Siberia Power of Siberia (Sila Sibiri, formerly named the Yakutia–Khabarovsk–Vladivostok pipeline, also known as China–Russia East-Route Natural Gas pipeline; russian: Сила Сибири, ) is a Gazprom-operated pipeline in Eastern Siberia that ...

gas pipeline. In 2014, the project was resumed during the APEC summit. In 2015, the project was "postponed for an indefinite period of time". Gazprom and the Mongolian Government discussed details of a feasibility study for the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline project in October 2021. In 2022, Mongolia’s Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai announced that the feasibility study has been completed, and that the construction of the pipeline will commence in 2024, and will connect the Siberian gas fields to China via Mongolia.

Route

The pipeline would start from the Purpeyskaya compressor station of the existing

Urengoy Urengoy (russian: Уренго́й; Nenets: Пюра ңо, ''Pjura ŋo'') is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Purovsky District of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia. Population: History Urengoy was founded in 1932 as a ...

–

Surgut Surgut ( rus, Сургу́т, p=sʊrˈgut; Khanty: Сәрханӆ, ''Sərhanł'') is a city in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on the Ob River near its junction with the Irtysh River. It is one of the few cities in Russia to be lar ...

–

Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a ...

pipeline. It would carry natural gas from the

Nadym Nadym (russian: Нады́м, Selkup: Ня́рэм, Nấrém) is a town in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on the river Nadym. The population has fluctuated: Etymology There are three several translations from the Nenets langu ...

and

fields in Western Siberia. The total length of the Russian section would be , including in Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region, in Khanty–Mansi autonomous region, in

Tomsk Oblast Tomsk Oblast (russian: То́мская о́бласть, ''Tomskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It lies in the southeastern West Siberian Plain, in the southwest of the Siberian Federal District. Its administrative cen ...

, in

Novosibirsk Oblast Novosibirsk Oblast (russian: Новосиби́рская о́бласть, ''Novosibirskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in southwestern Siberia. Its administrative and economic center is the city of Novosibirsk ...

, in

Altai Krai Altai Krai (russian: Алта́йский край, r=Altaysky kray, p=ɐlˈtajskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (a krai). It borders clockwise from the west, Kazakhstan (East Kazakhstan Region and Pavlodar ...

, and in the

Altai Republic The Altai Republic (; russian: Респу́блика Алта́й, Respublika Altay, ; Altai: , ''Altay Respublika''), also known as Gorno-Altai Republic, and colloquially, and primarily referred to in Russian to distinguish from the neighbour ...

. The terminal point in the Russian territory is the Kanas mountain pass. A large part of the pipeline will be built within the technical corridor of existing pipelines, such as the Urengoy—Surgut—Chelyabinsk, Northern Tyumen–Surgut—

Omsk Omsk (; rus, Омск, p=omsk) is the administrative center and largest city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia, and has a population of over 1.1 million. Omsk is the third largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk ...

Nizhnevartovsk Nizhnevartovsk ( rus, Нижневартовск, p=nʲɪʐnʲɪˈvartəfsk) is a city in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra, Russia. Since the 1960s, the Western Siberian oil boom led to Nizhnevartovsk's rapid growth from a small settlement t ...

gas refinery – Parabel, Parabel— Kuzbass,

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the Russian Census ...

—Kuzbass, Novosibirsk—

Barnaul Barnaul ( rus, Барнау́л, p=bərnɐˈul) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative centre of Altai Krai, Russia, located at the confluence of the Barnaulka and Ob Rivers in the West Siberian Plain. As ...

, and Barnaul—

Biysk Biysk ( rus, Бийск, p=bʲijsk) is a city in Altai Krai, Russia, located on the Biya River not far from its confluence with the Katun River. It is the second largest city of the krai (after Barnaul, the administrative center of the krai). Pop ...

pipelines. In China, the pipeline would be terminated in the

Xinjiang region Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

, where it will be linked to the

West–East Gas Pipeline The West–East Gas Pipeline () is a set of natural gas pipelines which run from the western part of China to the east. PetroChina Pipelines PetroChina Pipelines is a subsidiary (72.26%) of PetroChina that managed the first three pipelines of ...

. Alternatively, an eastern route through

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

is being studied.

Technical description

The diameter of the pipeline would be . The designed capacity of the pipeline would be 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) natural gas annually and the total costs of the whole project is expected to be up to US$14 billion. The pipeline was originally expected to become operational in 2011. The pipeline will be built and operated by TomskTransGaz, the subsidiary of Gazprom.

Controversy

The pipeline project has been criticized by environmental organizations because it was planned to run across the

Ukok Plateau Ukok Plateau is a plateau covered by grasslands located in southwestern Siberia, in the Altai Mountains region of Russia near the borders China-Russia border, with China, Kazakhstan-Russia border, Kazakhstan and Mongolia-Russia border, Mongolia. T ...

, which is the natural habitat of the

snow leopard The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia''), also known as the ounce, is a Felidae, felid in the genus ''Panthera'' native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia, Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red ...

and other endangered species. Additionally, Altai leaders feared that construction of the pipeline and accompanying technical highway will pave the way for a Chinese expansion into Altai. The pipeline route impacts burial sites and shrines in the region.

References

External links

Altai Project (Gazprom website)

А.Н. Рудой. "Обратная сторона Луны?"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Altai Gas Pipeline Natural gas pipelines in Russia Natural gas pipelines in China Proposed pipelines in Asia Gazprom pipelines China–Russia relations