Last week, as part of the Chinese President's official visit to Russia, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met with representatives of business circles of the two countries. According to a member of the Russian-Chinese Business Council, chairman of the Management Board at Novatek Leonid Mikhelson, the largest joint Russian-Chinese project of Yamal-LNG with annual capacity of 16.5 million tons per annum is being implemented by Novatek in cooperation with CNPC, the Silk Road Fund and Total.
The first line is already undergoing commissioning, it is planned to start production at the end of this year. In 2018-2019 the second and third stages of the project will be launched. Once the project reaches full capacity, Russia will rise to fifth-ranked from ninth-placed among the world's top LNG producing nations. Novatek has started designing the next, Arctic LNG-2, project on the Gydan Peninsula. The combined capacity of Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG will be around 35mn metric tons, which is comparable to half of the current volume of Qatar's LNG. The potential of the resource base of this region will allow the implementation of subsequent projects. The shorter transport route and low production costs in Yamal and Gydan give Russian LNG undeniable advantages when delivering to the Asia-Pacific and China. The share of gas in China's energy balance will continue to increase.
The chairman of the Russian-Chinese Business Council Ren Hongbin said that Russian and Chinese enterprises also cooperate in the electric power industry and in the chemical industry, as a result of which the trade turnover increased by 26.3% this year in comparison to the same period. "We will strive to activate financial services, facilitate the exchange between our financial institutions in financing, in national currencies and currency swap operations. We are committed to creating a better investment climate and creating a mechanism of holding regular meetings between business circles of China and Russia. We are ready to act as a bridge for strengthening mutual understanding and trust between our businessmen to promote the development of trade and economic ties on more high level in the process of integration of One Belt One Road and the EEU," Ren Hongbing said.
Russia and China signed a declaration on integration of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road Economic Belt. In fact, Russia has officially decided to integrate into cooperation and help in implementing this plan.
According to the rector of Moscow State University Viktor Sadovnichy, "the People's Republic of China is putting forward several projects. The Silk Road is their a priority project. It was discussed and being changed its concept. I participated in the initial stage of the discussion. Currently it is being discussed at a high level. I'm not ready to say how exactly this route will go. It will be a broad economic corridor that will be linked to the territory of our country, but oriented towards Europe, and I think, even Africa and the Middle East. "
"A group of scientists led by me - Academicians Osipov and Makarov - has developed in detail a trans-European project related to the development of our regions of Siberia, Kamchatka, up to Alaska." The project was reported to the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences in the Federation Council. We have published several books on this project. This is a trans-Asian corridor that will connect Europe and the US via Siberia and Alaska.Naturally, China will also be integrated into it. It is a trans-Asiatic corridor that will link Europe and the US through Siberia and Alaska. Naturally, China will also be integrated into it. The project is grandiose, it assumes that perpendicular corridors that will cover our entire territory, up to the Arctic and here, and from the south to the borders with Mongolia and China, will emerge from this corridor. It is a scientific investigation, but we worked closely with our Chinese comrades and are looking for common ground between the Silk Road and our Trans-Asian corridor," Sadovnichy said.
In his opinion, "we must be in the middle of the action, scientists will have to prove the efficiency and economic feasibility of integration, as well as think about the development of our country. If we talk about our project, Siberia will be covered by a network in 15 to 20 years - a railway corridor, helicopter services for development of its most remote locations. As long as this is science, but we reported to the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Transport as well. The main action, probably, will be developing around the Silk Road project".
