(Yicai Global) Feb. 7 -- China's largest oil and gas producer and supplier China National Petroleum Corp. will increase its imports of Russian natural gas by 26 percent to 48 billion cubic meters a year once the West Route pipeline between Russia and China is completed as the two nations tighten energy ties against a backdrop of heightened tensions with the West.

Gazprom will supply CNPC with an additional 10 billion cbm of natural gas annually over a 30-year period once the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, which began construction in 2015 and is expected to be completed around 2030, comes into operation, the Russian state-owned natural gas firm said on Feb. 4, citing an agreement the two parties had penned.

There is already a long-term purchase contract in place for 38 billion cbm a year along the 3,000-kilometer-long East Route pipeline that opened in December 2019. The new route, which runs 6,000 km from Russia’s biggest gas field in the Yamal Peninsula across Mongolia to China, will have a capacity of 50 billion cbm a year.

“Russia is paying more attention to the Asia-Pacific energy market as it faces economic sanctions by Western countries,” Wei Jinshen, associate professor at the School of Politics and International Relations at Lanzhou University, told Yicai Global. And China is seeking to use more natural gas to meet its carbon neutrality targets.

The presidents of the two countries held talks on Feb. 4, the first day of the Beijing Winter Olympics, to deepen co-operation. Almost 20 deals in trade, investment, energy and sports were signed, Xinhua News Agency reported on Feb. 5.

Gazprom aims to be China’s largest natural gas supplier and provide almost a quarter of the nation’s imported natural gas by 2035, the Moscow-based firm told local media earlier. Last year, the company, which is the world’s biggest natural gas producer, extracted 514.8 billion cbm of natural gas, a 13-year high, enabling it to meet rising demand. Fifteen countries raised their orders of natural gas from Russia last year.

Editor: Kim Taylor