VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Sept 2 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has renamed the planned “Power of Siberia 2” gas pipeline to China to the “Power of Baikal” pipeline, Russia’s Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said on Wednesday.
He did not say if any other elements of the project had been changed.
“We are in the final stages of moving to the construction of the project formerly known as Power of Siberia 2, but thanks to Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin), he named it, quite literally, Power of Baikal,” Tsivilev told the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia’s Pacific port of Vladivostok.
The planned 2,600-km (1,616-mile) pipeline is expected to carry 50 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year to China through Mongolia from the Arctic gas fields of Yamal. It would complement the existing Power of Siberia 1 pipeline that brought 38 bcm of gas from Russia to China last year.
The planned pipeline has long been stalled due to disagreements over the price of the gas it will carry. Putin has said that the price of gas would be based on a market formula similar to the one Russia uses to calculate the cost of shipments to Europe.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya AstakhovaEditing by Andrew Osborn)
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