Overview
- Following Tuesday’s summit between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, Russian officials said a legally binding memorandum and a shared understanding on the pipeline’s route and main parameters are in place.
- Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said supply contracts are in final technical revision stages, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed important details are still unresolved and no start date has been set.
- Power of Siberia‑2 is planned as a more than 2,600 km trunk pipeline through Mongolia with up to 50 billion cubic meters per year capacity that would link Russia’s Arctic fields to China’s east coast.
- The core outstanding disputes are a long‑term price formula and contract structure, with Russia pressing for higher, Europe‑linked prices and China seeking flexible, lower terms to avoid heavy dependence on a single supplier.
- If completed after the multi‑year build and ramp‑up that China and analysts estimate could take roughly a decade, the pipeline would reduce China’s need for seaborne LNG and reshape global gas flows, freeing LNG supplies for other buyers.