Gazprom is planning to build two pipelines transmitting natural gas from Russia to China with an annual gas transmission capacity of 68 billion cubic meters, said sources with the Russian news center in Beijing on Friday.

Through video-live broadcast, Alexei Miller, Chairman of the management committee of Gazprom, said at the annual meeting of shareholders held in Moscow that the western pipeline with an annual transmission capacity of 30 billion cubic meters will be considered first.

The western line project plans to transmit natural gas produced in West Siberia to China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region through Altai of Russia, said Miller.

As the western line is near to Russia's current natural gas infrastructures, gas supply could be guaranteed in a short term, he said.

Through video-broadcast, Miller told Xinhua that natural gas reserves in West Siberia is enough for China's current demand, so it is preferable to the eastern line.

The eastern line is designed to start from Gakhalin, passed the far east region of Russia and finally ended in Northeast China, he said.

According to Miller, the project for the western line is under investment feasibility research.

Miller said that commercial negotiations between Russia and China on construction of the pipelines are underway and the first pipeline is estimated to go into operation in 2011.

As for the price, Miller said that Russia will refer to a package of oil prices to form a unified price of gas exports to China.

Russia aims to unify the price counting method for both oil and gas exports to China, which is helpful to maintaining a comparatively stable price, said Jiang Yi, an expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The Asian-Pacific region is expected to see sharp growth in demand for natural gas in the next 15 years and China is one of the most potential markets, he said.

The joint-stock company is Russia's largest natural gas producer which had nearly one-third gas output for exports in 2005.

Source: Xinhua