Will Iran War Give Green Light To Russia’s Power Of Siberia-2 Pipeline?

(Reid Standish – RFE/RL) The war in Iran and the resulting energy shock could revive China’s interest in a long-stalled pipeline to import Russian gas, analysts told RFE/RL, potentially reshaping Beijing’s energy strategy. As countries are facing an energy crisis after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, halting oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) flows from the Gulf, Beijing is grappling with the potential loss of discounted Iranian oil and the risk of prolonged market disruption, prompting a rethink of its reliance on a chokepoint that carries roughly 40 percent of its oil and 30 percent of its LNG imports. Those pressures could rekindle talks over the Power of Siberia-2 gas project — a 2,600-kilometer pipeline that would bring gas from Russia’s northern Yamal Peninsula to China via eastern Mongolia — as Beijing reassesses its reliance on seaborne energy. “It definitely keeps Power of Siberia-2 on the negotiating table,” Erica Downs, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, told RFE/RL. “With supplies from Qatar disrupted, China’s preference for overland natural gas imports is likely to increase.” – Will Iran War Give Green Light To Russia’s Power Of Siberia-2 Pipeline?