Power of Siberia gas pipeline section. Archival photo MOSCOW, January 9 The gas market in Europe may become more scarce if Gazprom increases supplies to China, in particular on Power of Siberia — 2, Dmitry Marinchenko, director of the group for natural resources and commodities at Fitch, told RIA Novosti. will undoubtedly continue to supply gas to Europe under long-term contracts, but the amount of gas sold on spot deals and in excess of the minimum contractual volumes may indeed decrease. This may lead to the fact that «Gazprom» will cease to be a balancing supplier of the «last resort» in Europe, as part of the gas from the fields in Western Siberia will go to China. As a result, the gas market in Europe may indeed become more scarce, and the peaks in consumption will be covered by LNG, which will have to compete with Asia, «he said. On the other hand, the analyst notes, gas supplied to China via the pipeline is additional volumes of LNG, which will not be bought by China, but will be available to other buyers, including European ones. We are talking about a possible shortage of gas on the European market in the next 5-10 years, but after Power of Siberia — 2 will be put into operation, the expert specified. Then, Marinchenko notes, the demand for gas in Europe will probably begin to decline due to the energy transition. 
The expert told how expensive gas will put pressure on the euro Entry to the Chinese gas market, according to a Fitch analyst, is an absolutely pragmatic concept for Gazprom: in the long term, the company may face a drop in gas demand in Europe due to the transition to renewable energy sources. In December, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that Russian and Chinese leaders Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping discussed gas supplies via Power of Siberia-2 during their video-link talks. The British newspaper The Telegraph in January noted that the deal between Russia and China on the construction of the Power of Siberia — 2 gas pipeline may aggravate the gas crisis in Europe. Power of Siberia is the largest gas transportation system in eastern Russia with a length of about three thousand kilometers. The gas pipeline route passes through the territories of the Irkutsk Region, Yakutia and the Amur Region. The main gas pipeline currently transports gas to Russian consumers in the Far East, as well as to China. The first section of the Power of Siberia — from the Chayandinskoye field in Yakutia to Blagoveshchensk (border with China) with a length of about 2,200 kilometers — was built in five years and launched in 2019. … The second section — and from the Kovykta to Chayandinskoye field, almost 800 kilometers — is planned to be commissioned in early 2023. Power of Siberia — 2 — a new projected gas pipeline through which gas will be transported to China via Mongolia, on Russian territory will cross the Krasnoyarsk Territory , Irkutsk region, Buryatia and Transbaikalia. Estimated export capacity — 50 billion cubic meters per year. 
