Gazprom will hold a new round of talks with China on the supply price of natural gas in January 2009, Alexander Medvedev, vice president of the leading Russian gas supplier, announced Tuesday.

According to Medvedev, the implementation of the Altai Gas Pipeline Project will depend on the result of negotiations. Connecting gas fields in western Siberia and China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the project was planned to break earth in 2008, and be completed in 2011, with a total investment of USD 11 billion. Upon completion, the pipeline is expected to export 30 billion to 40 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China per year.

Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (PetroChina Group) inked an agreement to build the Altai Project in March 2006. However, the construction had made no progress earlier as both sides failed to reach consensus on supply price. Gazprom would probably sell gas produced in western Siberia to China at the same price as sold to Europe, revealed a Russian document in October.

(Asiaport Daily News, Nov 20, 2008)