Since the beginning of 2021, the cost of Russian gas supplies to China on the Power Siberia gas pipeline fell to minimum values - below $ 120 per thousand cubic meters. This is evidenced by the data of the General Administration for the CNR Customs, to which Interfax refers.
Russia began to supply fuel record cheap due to contract features. Its formula is tied to the cost of fuel oil and gas oil with a lag at nine months, and those, in turn, are tied to oil prices.
The cost of gas changes once a quarter, that is, in April it will be revised. But now deliveries go several times cheaper than on average in the market.
So, in January, the average price for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Asia was $ 587 per thousand cubic meters, and the Russian LNG went to China by $ 487. In Europe, the average cost of gas on the spot market was $ 257 per thousand cubic meters.
China in the first quarter receives Russian gas even cheaper than Belarus, which has to pay $ 128.5. In Europe, gas was at a price of $ 170. At the same time, Tajikistan sells its fuel to China by $ 187, Kazakhstan – 162 dollars, and Uzbekistan – 151 dollars.
Against this background, China sharply adjusted the purchase of Russian gas. The actual monthly volume of deliveries for February 2021 was 3.2 times more than in February 2020. Meanwhile, last year, when prices were higher, Russia could not even implement the minimum scheduled volume.