Leading up to these 2018 New Year celebrations globally, with all the noisy colorful firework shows from world capitols, the second branch of the Russian-Chinese oil pipeline was quietly commissioned and put into operation. The CNPC announced the end of branch construction, fulfilling all agreement conditions and completing the pipeline prior to January 1, 2018.

Fifteen million tons of oil per annum is to be supplied to China through the Skovorodino pipeline (Amur Region) to the Mohe-Dacin (North-Eastern China), particularly from the large nearby Ivankovskoe deposit. It seems that payments will be Ruble-Yuan based.

The PRC has recently made serious changes to actively substitute coal with gas and other less polluting fuels. In consequence, there is a natural gas shortage after the government aggressively pushed a program to replace coal-fired heating with systems powered by natural gas, electricity or other cleaner fuels in the widely air polluted northern China.

China’s top three oil and natural gas suppliers Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp. were also asked to quickly develop means to use natural gas extracted from coal beds, to support an environmentally friendly heating system and speed up imports of natural gas from Russia.

This new pipeline branch from Russia will no doubt help their efforts tremendously, and assist a bit in cleaning up the air for Northern China.