Alexander Novak said that the construction of the Siberia 2 power and Far East pipeline will require up to 67 billion US dollars in direct investment and 27 billion US dollars in related industries such as metallurgy, cement and chemicals.

Novak said Russia needed to diversify its export mix after losing the European market. Before the Ukraine issue, this accounted for 49% of Russia's foreign gas sales. Russia's supply to China through the 3,968-kilometer Siberia 1 power plant will increase by 48% in 2022, reaching a record 15.4 billion cubic meters for the year.

Russia's state energy company Gazprom wants to start transporting up to 5 billion cubic meters of gas by 2030 using the 2,600-kilometer Siberia Line 2.

The Far East Line is in the early stages of development. Gazprom signed an agreement with China National Petroleum Corporation in February last year, and the two countries reached a draft intergovernmental agreement in late January that included terms for payments in rubles and yuan.

The Siberia 2 force will transport gas across Mongolia from the Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk regions. The Far East service will be from Sakhalin Island in northern Japan.Editor/XingWentao