The China-Russia East Route natural gas pipeline was put into operation



"Gas!" "Take it!" At 17:00 Beijing time on December 2, with the instructions issued by the heads of state of China and Russia via video link, the China-Russia East Route natural gas pipeline was officially put into operation.

The natural air flow from the Russian Far East, through the "Power of Siberia" pipeline, enters from Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province, arrives in Northeast China, and connects with the natural gas pipeline network.

The China-Russia East Route natural gas Pipeline is the third cross-border long gas pipeline supplying gas to China after the Central Asia Pipeline and the China-Myanmar pipeline. The China-Russia East Route natural gas pipeline in China runs through nine provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong, Jiangsu and Shanghai, with a total length of 5,111 kilometers. Among them, the new pipeline 3,371 kilometers, the use of pipeline in service 1,740 kilometers, the whole line is divided into the north section (Heihe-Changling), the middle section (Changling - Yongqing), the southern section (Yongqing - Shanghai) three sections approved and constructed by stages.

On October 16, the northern section of the China-Russia East Route natural gas pipeline project was completed. It is understood that the China-Russia Eastern natural gas pipeline pipeline is interconnected with the Northeast pipeline network system, the Shan-Beijing system, and the west-east gas transmission system, which jointly form a natural gas pipeline network pattern that runs north-south, across east and west, and connects overseas, speeding up the construction of "a national network". After completion of the project, it can steadily supply natural gas resources to the Northeast, the Bohai Sea, the Yangtze River Delta and other regions. The entire pipeline is initially scheduled for completion in 2023.

Behind the production of the China-Russia East Route natural gas pipeline is a cross-century negotiation that has undergone several twists and turns: if it starts from the signing of the memorandum of understanding on the construction of the natural gas pipeline between China and Russia in 1994, the negotiation has experienced exactly 20 years until 2014. A petrochina negotiator said he had made more than 50 trips between China and Russia in one year, the China Petroleum News reported.

In March 2006, CNPC and Gazprom of Russia signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the supply of natural gas from Russia to China. The two sides plan to build two natural gas pipelines to China, the western pipeline crossing the Altai from Xinjiang to China, and the eastern pipeline will be transported to northeast China through the Russian Far East. Russia regards the western route project as a priority, but the two sides are deadlocked over the price of buying and selling gas.

After 2007, the changes in the international political situation and the change in the pattern of the world natural gas market provided a breakthrough for the negotiations between China and Russia. In May 2014, the Chinese and Russian governments signed the Memorandum of Understanding on China-Russia East Route Natural Gas Cooperation Project, and the China National Petroleum Corporation and Russia's Gazprom signed the "Sino-Russian East Route Gas Purchase and Sale Contract" with a total value of more than 400 billion US dollars and an annual gas supply of 38 billion cubic meters with a term of up to 30 years. Because the eastern route pipeline is closer to the main market of China's natural gas consumption, the Eastern route project is the first to bear fruit in the "marathon" long negotiations between China and Russia.

In August 2014 and May 2015, the purchase and sales contracts officially came into effect after being approved by the Chinese and Russian governments. In June 2015, construction of the China-Russia East Route natural gas pipeline began.

According to market agency IHS Markit estimates that for the gas consumption market in northeast China, Russian gas via the "Power of Siberia" pipeline is one of the cheapest options, compared with the price of imported liquefied natural gas in the Bohai Bay area, the price of Russian gas is also competitive enough. However, because the market demand in the northeast can absorb limited gas, Gazprom must look south to find more abundant gas consumption markets.

After the China-Russia East Route natural gas pipeline is officially put into operation, 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas will be introduced in 2020, which will directly benefit Heijijiliao, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and other places, and will increase the output year by year, eventually reaching 38 billion cubic meters/year.

In other words, after the completion of the northern, central and southern sections of the China-Russia Eastern Route, 38 billion cubic meters of clean and high-quality natural gas will be supplied annually to the Northeast, Bohai Rim and Yangtze River Delta regions, and annual carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 142 million tons and sulfur dioxide emissions by 1.82 million tons, benefiting more than 400 million people in nine provinces along the route. We will effectively improve and alleviate air pollution along the routes.

In addition, the China-Russia East Route natural gas pipeline project has also set a number of new records in the history of pipeline construction in China: for the first time, the combination of 1422 mm caliber, X80 high steel grade and 12 mpa high pressure has been built into the largest single natural gas long-distance pipeline project in the world. This is also the first pipeline in the history of China's pipeline to fully realize the localization of key equipment and core control system.