MOSCOW, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Russian energy giant Gazprom may build a natural gas pipeline from Russia to China before it completes South Stream.
The 1,700-mile Altai pipeline to China is to be built between 2015 and 2018, while the launch of South Stream isn't planned until 2015-24, Russian business daily Vedomosti reports.
The newspaper cites from the latest draft of a gas sector development plan drafted by the Russian Energy Ministry, which will submit the paper to the government by the end of this month, Vedomosti quoted a ministry official as saying.
South Stream is intended to move 2.2 trillion cubic feet of gas per year from Russia under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and then to Western Europe. Several European governments and companies, including Italian utility Eni, back South Stream.
Plans for a pipeline to China date back almost a decade but the realization has been delayed by the difficult nature of the price negotiations between Moscow and Beijing.
Well aware of the European plan to diversify its gas imports to become less dependent on Russia, Moscow would like to sell its gas to China for Western prices. Naturally, China refuses that. The row is set to continue and could delay the Altai pipeline further, observers say.
Some of them have questioned the pipeline's merit altogether at a time when China seems to be turning to Central Asia for its energy supplies.
Beijing has courted Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan for major gas and oil projects and in several instances managed to grab stakes in key fields.
Due to its seemingly unlimited cash reserves, China was able to complete within three years a 1,100-mile pipeline from Turkmenistan to China. Gas deliveries started this year.
The Altai pipeline has also come under fire from environmental organizations because it runs through the Ukok Plateau, a natural habitat of the snow leopard and other endangered species.
South Stream as well as Nord Stream under the Baltic Sea were jump-started in a bid to bypass transit countries such as Ukraine and deliver Russian gas unilaterally to Europe, and at the same time secure Russia's prominent position as Europe's main gas supplier.
Russia pushed South Stream even stringer when Europe launched Nabucco, a competitor pipeline.
The proposed 2,500-mile pipeline would stretch from Azerbaijan to Austria via Turkey and is aimed at breaking the Russian domination of gas import routes to Europe. Nabucco would be designed to carry 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year to Europe.
