Russia to Develop New Gas Extraction Areas to Satisfy China's Demand

Recently signed agreement on long-term partnership guarantees that China will have significant volumes of gas, competitive in price, and allows Russia to develop new gas extraction areas, Gazprom's executive said Monday.

MOSCOW, November 24 (Sputnik) — Russia can develop new areas of gas extraction in the country's eastern regions amid the significant demand from China, Gazprom's executive Vladimir Markov told journalists Monday.

"We have a mutual interest in each other, both China in Russia and Russia in China. The important papers on long-term partnership signed recently by the heads of our states, guarantees, I underline guarantees, that China will have significant volumes of gas, competitive in price, and allows Russia to develop new gas extraction areas in the eastern parts of our country,” Gazprom's management committee member and head of the Department for Relations with the Russian Federation Authorities told journalists after a press conference at Rossiya Segodnya press center.

Turning to the Baltic countries, Markov said that the free trade mechanism "presupposes competition. That means offering our clients better conditions than our competition. Let me underline, they [Baltic countries] are our competitors, not our rivals, because they are also our partners."

"I would hope for us as a company and for our state to be able to offer them the conditions they want. I would not want for this to stand in the way of politics," Markov added. He also said that a significant part of the decision making process rests on political, not just economic reasons.

The management committee member also touched upon the issue of sanctions, imposed by the Western countries over Russia's alleged involvement into Ukrainian affairs.

"I will not say that they [sanctions] don’t have any effect. There are consequences. But we have long-term, usually 25-year-long contracts with our partners, which allow us to confidently continue production and be certain that the market will be there according to contracts. This goes without politics. In politics it is as in family, one day we are friends, another day we fight,” Markov said.

Over the past months, the European Union, the United States and their allies have implemented several rounds of sanctions on Russia over its alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis, particularly targeting Russia’s defense, energy and banking sectors.