Russia eyes Mongolia as shortcut to China for supplying natural gas

Moscow, July 5 - Neftegaz.RU. Mongolia, land-locked between 2 countries - Russia and China, could soon serve as an important transit country for Russian natural gas and its related supply chains, ANI reported.

Once completed, the Soyuz Vostok gas pipeline will become an extension of Russia's Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline in Mongolian territory.
In other words, this ambitious project is meant to provide supplies of Russian gas across Mongolia and into China.
Gazprom has already opened a subsidiary company called Gazoprovod Soyuz Vostok in Mongolia.

Recently, Mongolian Foreign Minister Battsetseg Batmunkh visited Moscow, where she met with Alexey Miller, Gazprom´s CEO.
It is unlikely a coincidence that Batmunkh's 1^st foreign trip since her appointment was to Russia.

In November, the 2 nations will mark a century of establishing diplomatic relations and have already signed a permanent treaty on friendly relations and lifted bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

Meanwhile, in 2016, the 3 countries, China, Russia, Mongolia reached a comprehensive deal on developing the China-Mongolia-Russia (CMR) economic corridor.
At its core, the CMR corridor aims to improve transport connectivity and cross-border trade services through infrastructure development.
It also aims to strengthen 3-way cooperation across energy.

Along with this, the construction of new railway lines in Mongolia is underway, with completion expected in 2022.
China will be the biggest beneficiary of this transport network given that Beijing is one of the biggest buyers of Mongolia's coal.

After China imposed a ban on the import of Australian coal, Beijing reportedly increased coal purchases from Mongolia as well as Russia and Indonesia.
Mongolia's huge reserves of high-quality coal could be soon exported worldwide via the ports of the Russian Far East at Vladivostok and the Vostochny coal terminal.