It sounds like China may start buying up that natural gas instead. I only see this as a plus, given that China still gets 2/3 of its electricity from coal. While sources like nuclear and renewables would be ideal, anything that gets them off coal is at least an improvement.
Limited transport capacity and gas power-plants make that unlikely I think. I rather expect that Russia and neighbouring central Asian countries will increase exports of energy rich materials such as cement to China, because for those the rail infrastructure already exists.
I am doubtful of that. The distance from the major Russian gas fields to the industrial centres in China is massive and China seems to rather prefer investing money into home grown tech like nuclear and renewables (and in the short term coal plants using coal mostly mined inside China).
Of course they will happily accept cheap products made with natural gas in exchange for their higher value exports, but Russia will not benefit much from that.
That’s a good point, but it may cost a similar amount to build a pipeline to China. The fossil fuel fields are about equidistant between the borders with Europe and China. That still leaves a traversal through China, but that would be over land instead of expensive underwater construction.
Limited transport capacity and gas power-plants make that unlikely I think. I rather expect that Russia and neighbouring central Asian countries will increase exports of energy rich materials such as cement to China, because for those the rail infrastructure already exists.
Yeah, that’s why I see that as more of a long term shift. Russia shares a land border with China that it can build a pipeline to.
I am doubtful of that. The distance from the major Russian gas fields to the industrial centres in China is massive and China seems to rather prefer investing money into home grown tech like nuclear and renewables (and in the short term coal plants using coal mostly mined inside China).
Of course they will happily accept cheap products made with natural gas in exchange for their higher value exports, but Russia will not benefit much from that.
That’s a good point, but it may cost a similar amount to build a pipeline to China. The fossil fuel fields are about equidistant between the borders with Europe and China. That still leaves a traversal through China, but that would be over land instead of expensive underwater construction.