Workers are seen at the construction site of a station of the China-Russia east route natural gas pipeline project in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Aug. 20, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

A gas chemical project in Amur, Russia, which attracted investment from a Chinese state-owned enterprise, is progressing well despite the cold winter, and the project represents enhanced energy cooperation between China and Russia.

Amur, about 200 kilometers north of Heihe, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, locates in Russia's Far East, with sparse resources and difficult working conditions.

In 2019, China's state-owned oil giant Sinopec signed a cooperation agreement with Russia's Sibur company for the gas chemical project in Amur, with total investment of $11.6 billion. Once completed, annual output is expected to be between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion.

In August 2020, the two companies began construction. With the joint efforts of the two firms, the project was 25.2 percent complete by the end of October 2021, and it is forecast to be 30.9 percent finished by the end of this year, Xinhua News Agency reported.

"During winter, the temperature can plummet to -40 C, and the soil can freeze to a depth of up to 4 meters, which complicates the laying of underground pipelines," said Alexei Vereshchagin, the Russian general manager of the project.

A similar project was previously built in Tobolsk, Russia, with a design capacity of 2 million tons per year and a construction period of 52 months; however, the Amur gas chemical project, with a design capacity of 2.7 million tons per year, only has a construction period of 46 months.

"The project will be completed by May 2024 on schedule, and by the end of the same year after a trial run of the equipment, we will receive the first ton of product," Vereshchagin said.

Russia has become China's largest source of energy imports. In the first three quarters of 2021, two-way energy trade hit $34.9 billion, accounting for more than 30 percent of the total bilateral trade.

In 2021, the China-Russia natural gas pipeline is scheduled to supply about 10 billion cubic meters of gas. 

While bilateral energy trade continues to grow, China-Russia total trade is expected to reach $130-140 billion at the end of 2021, a record high.

Global Times