Russia will delay the construction of proposed gas pipeline to China due to competition from other gas sources in the Chinese market, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Russian media. The Altai gas pipeline project, designed to ship 30 bln cubic meters of natural gas per year from western Siberia to China, was excluded from Russia's recently released blueprint for gas industry development through 2030, the agency said. China and Russia signed a memorandum on Russian gas shipments to China in 2006, but they have been unable to reach an agreement on pricing and other matters since then. China initially hoped to begin receiving natural gas from Russia in 2011.The new blueprint says gas from the proposed Altai pipeline would be less competitive in the Chinese market than gas from Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan has already agreed to supply China with 30 bln cubic meters of gas per year. The central Asian nation's gas is much cheaper due to lower exploration costs and shorter pipeline distance, the Russian blueprint said 1.

• 1. “Russia to delay construction of proposed gas pipeline to China”, XFN-Asia , 8 October, 2008, at http://asianenergy.blogspot.com/2008/10/russia-to-delay-construction-of....