Russia has been in discussions with Asia-Pacific countries about new long-term contracts for supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as their possible investment in LNG plants, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday.

Russia has been diversifying its business away from Europe, it’s traditionally biggest trade partner, due to the wider political fallout and Western sanctions imposed following the start of what Moscow calls a special military operation in Ukraine last year.

Novak said in his column for the Energy Ministry’s in-house magazine that cooperation over LNG projects has been developing with partners from the Asia-Pacific.

“The possibility of signing new long-term contracts for the supply of LNG, including from future projects, as well as equity participation in a number of LNG enterprises is being discussed,” he said.

China’s Silk Road Fund already has a 9.9% stake in Russia’s Yamal LNG plant, while China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) owns a 20% stake in the project.

Russia also plans to expand capacity of its key oil pipelines by 32 million tonnes per year by 2026 as it seeks to forge closer ties with Asia, Novak said.

He said that Rosneft would send 30 million tonnes (600,000 barrels per day) of oil to China via the Skovorodino-Mohe pipeline this year.

Novak reiterated that Russia will cut oil and oil products exports to the West this year to only 87 million tonnes from 223 million tonnes supplied earlier, without specifying the period.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Oksana Kobzeva; editing by Jason Neely and Elaine Hardcastle)