Alexey

Gazprom Chairman Alexey Miller and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) President Zhou Jiping signed a memorandum of understanding for the companies to cooperate on a project to send natural gas to China via an eastern route pipeline. “The signed document is of long-term strategic nature; it determines the parameters of Russian natural gas supplies to China via the eastern route and establishes the framework for a 30-year contract for gas supplies from Russia to China,” Miller said. CNPC is the largest state-owned petroleum company in China. Gazprom and CNPC signed an agreement of strategic cooperation in 2004 that covers consideration of supplying Russian gas to China. Opportunities are also being explored for joint gas processing and gas chemical projects in eastern Russia and in other countries, Gazprom said (see Daily GPI, March 15).