RIA Novosti reported that Russian energy giant Gazprom may build a gas pipeline from Russia to China before it implements the South Stream project and planned for gas transportation across the Black Sea.

Vedomosti said citing the latest draft of a gas sector development plan through 2030 that the Altai pipeline is expected to be launched between 2015 and 2018, while the launch of South Stream is not planned until 2015-2024.

Vedomosti quoted a ministry official as saying that the Russian Energy Ministry which penned the draft will submit it to the government by the end of August.

Gazprom refused to comment. Experts said but with China already investing heavily in the two biggest energy suppliers in Central Asia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, the Altai pipeline will be a white elephant, costly, fraught with environmental risks and ultimately useless.

Experts said Russia agreed to build a gas pipeline to China as far back as 2002 but has haggled with Beijing over the gas price ever since. And the odds are that this will go on for quite some time. Russia wants to sell at European prices something China is not going to consent to as it is already getting cheap Central Asian gas.

Gazprom South Stream pipeline will run under the Black Sea through Turkish waters to Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria.

(Sourced from RIA Novosti)