The Altai gas pipeline is a projected gas pipeline designed to export natural gas from the Western Siberia region to China. Exit to Chinese territory is supposed to be on the site of the Russian-Chinese border between Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The Altai gas pipeline, the scheme of which is given below, will pass through the territories of six Russian constituent entities of the federation.
Project background
Back in 2004, an agreement was reached between Gazprom and the Chinese state oil and gas company CNPC on the development of strategic cooperation. Even then, the Chinese were thinking about ways to supply natural gas to their booming market. After all, the growth in gas consumption in their country since the beginning of the 21st century is significantly ahead of the growth in its domestic production.
Current estimates show that by 2020, China will consume more than 300 billion m 3 of gas, which is three times the current volume of its production (about 100 billion m 3).
The first steps
In development of the aforementioned agreement, in March 2006, during a visit to the country by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a Memorandum on the supply of Russian gas to China was signed. Signatures were signed by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and CNPC CEO Chen Geng. The memorandum determined the timing of gas pipelines, the volumes and two supply routes: from Altai, the Altai gas pipeline, and Power of Siberia, from Eastern Siberia.
In the summer of that same year, the Steering Committee started working, the task of which was to implement the Altai project. In autumn, Gazprom and the government of the Altai Republic, which borders on the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, signed a cooperation agreement that laid out in detail how the gas pipeline through Altai would be built.
Years of approvals and estimates
However, the project did not progress easily. Several years were spent on difficult negotiations with Chinese partners to develop an order for its financing and determine the formula for the price of Russian gas. Only in the summer of 2009, a memorandum was signed between Russia and China, confirming the achievement of mutual understanding between the parties, and in the summer of that year, a Framework Agreement was signed between Gazprom and CNPC, containing a gas price formula that is linked to the cost of oil.
In the following 2010, the same two companies also signed the Extended Main Terms for gas supplies from Russia to China. It was expected that the export contract will be signed in 2011, and deliveries will begin at the end of 2015. However, this did not happen. The Chinese partners decided to limit themselves to gas supplies on the eastern route - Power of Siberia, having signed a 30-year contract worth $ 400 billion in May 2014. In September of the same 2014, the construction of this gas pipeline began.
What is the Altai gas pipeline? 2014 brought new hope for the revitalization of this project. In November of that year, the leaders of both countries, Russia and China, held regular talks. According to their results, another memorandum was signed, which fixed the intention of the parties to double the volume of gas supplies to China, the Altai gas pipeline should have become the main tool for this. 2014 and 2015 passed in anticipation of decisive shifts, but so far they have not followed.
Altai gas pipeline: news of recent months
In early September 2015, Alexey Miller announced that he was awaiting the signing of a contract for the export of gas to China along the western route, which is increasingly called the Power of Siberia-2, next spring. However, in the same month, E. Burmistrova, head of the Gazprom Export division, said negotiations with the Chinese were very difficult. And agreement on price, especially given the "dramatic changes in the market", has not yet been reached.
Then the price of oil was fifty dollars per barrel, today it is less than thirty. It is clear that in such conditions it is unlikely to reach an agreement until spring if the price of oil continues to fluctuate. In November 2015, the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation, A. Novak, said that the slowdown in decision-making on the western route of gas supplies was caused by a decrease in the growth rate of the Chinese economy. Since then they have declined even more.
Amid the collapse of world oil prices, Gazprom and CNPC will have to look for a new model for cooperation. Therefore, the construction of the Altai gas pipeline will be somewhat delayed in time. However, so far no one is going to "put an end to" the entire project.
Gas route
The 2800-kilometer Altai gas pipeline will begin from the Purpeiskaya compressor station of the existing Urengoy-Surgut-Chelyabinsk pipeline. It will transport gas from the Nadym and Urengoy fields in Western Siberia.
The total length of the Russian section will be 2666 km, including 205 kilometers along the lands of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, 325 kilometers along the territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, 879 kilometers in the Tomsk Region, 244 km in the Novosibirsk Region, 422 km in the Altai Territory and 591 km in the Altai Republic.
Its final point on the territory of Russia will be the Kanas mountain pass. Most of the gas pipeline will be built within the technical corridor of existing pipelines, such as Urengoy – Surgut – Chelyabinsk, Northern Tyumen – Surgut – Omsk, Nizhnevartovsk gas processing plant — Parabel – Kuzbass, Novosibirsk – Kuzbass, Novosibirsk – Barnaul, and finally Barnaul – Biysk.
In China, the Altai gas pipeline will go to Xinjiang, where it will be connected to the West-East domestic gas pipeline.
Technical description
The diameter of the pipeline will be 1420 mm. The design capacity will be 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, and the total cost of the entire project is expected to be up to $ 14 billion. The main line will be equipped with the most modern compressor stations. The pipeline will be managed by Tomsktransgaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom.
Project criticism
Does everyone in Russia like the Altai project? The pipeline is planned to be launched through the Ukok plateau in the Kosh-Agachsky region of the Altai Republic, bordering on China, which is the natural habitat of the snow leopard and other rare endangered animals.
Today, on the territory of the Ukok plateau, the State Institution "Natural Park - Ukok Rest Zone" is operating, created and maintained by the authorities of the Altai Republic. The administration of the natural park expresses concerns that the construction of the gas pipeline will negatively affect the ecology of this unique corner of nature.
This is primarily about the destabilization of soils, which are permafrost, as well as the destabilization of seismic processes (due to drilling) in the zone of 8-9 point seismicity.
Concerns are expressed that the self-healing of natural biocomplexes disrupted during the construction in the harsh conditions of Ukok may take several decades. Therefore, Altai ecologists propose to conduct a public eco-examination of the project and conduct field studies along the proposed route, and subsequently conduct continuous eco-monitoring of the area.
