Gazprom may buy gas from independent producers for China. The company begins assessment of the potential near Power of Siberia pipeline

Gazprom has begun to study the possibility of buying natural gas from independent producers for future deliveries to China, the Reuters reports, citing two sources. "It is not confirmed. There were only contacts in terms of information for the formation of the gas balance for the East," - said a representative of Gazprom Sergei Kupriyanov.
 
The concern requested Irkutsk oil company to "secure" the supplies to China in the future, says one of the agency’s interlocutors: "There is a fundamental agreement, but we don’t know the price, and Gazprom doesn’t know too". This may be the purchase of up 7 billion cubic meters from the Irkutsk oil company. The representative of the company declined to comment.
 
"There is a lot of gas in Eastern Siberia, it is necessary to develop the production. If you give an impetus, there will be a more stable system. <...> We don’t demand the right to export gas, but we would like to be able to transport it at a reasonable price via this pipe," - chairman of the Irkutsk oil company’s Board Nicholai Buinov said in an interview with the Vedomosti. The company has several licensed areas near the Chayandinskoye gas field, which should be the basis for the export to China.