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Gazprom ready to lay gas pipeline to China - Miller

30 June 2011 18:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Russian gas giant Gazprom is "completely ready" to start the construction of a natural gas pipeline to China, CEO Alexei Miller said after an annual shareholders’ meeting on Thursday, APA reports quoting RÄ°A Novosti.

"We are completely ready to begin pipeline construction," Miller said without mentioning the estimated costs of the project.

Miller said that another round of talks will be held soon.

"The next round [will be held] next month, but July begins tomorrow," he said.

Russia and China signed a legally binding agreement on basic terms of gas supplies in September 2010. It was earlier reported that Gazprom may begin the construction this summer.

The Russian gas giant is set to become China’s major gas supplier, but the price is yet to be agreed. Beijing wants Gazprom to set a lower price than it sells the blue fuel to Europe for, to which Gazprom is opposed.

"In regard to the price, it’s not about the difference between absolute prices, it is the equal profitability with Europe which is of principal importance to us," Miller said.

Last September, Moscow and Beijing, the world largest energy market, signed a binding supply document, which outlined the western supply route, where gas comes from Western Siberia and the eastern route from Eastern Siberia, Russia’s Far East and Sakhalin. The western route is the basic and Russia’s gas export monopoly Gazprom plans to start building the Altai gas pipeline in the middle of this year and launch at the end of 2015.