gas flame
© Simon Belcher / Global Look Press
The world's fifth largest consumer of natural gas, China, is planning to boost imports from neighboring Russia, according to the Chinese Board of Energy Affairs. Beijing will also buy more gas from Kazakhstan.

At the same time, China is set to promote diversification of natural gas imports, an official source said, as quoted by government-controlled China News Service.

"In 2017, China imported 95.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas via the Central Asian and China-Myanmar gas pipelines from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Myanmar," the source told the agency. "In the near future, imports of gas from Russia and Kazakhstan will be increased."

In an attempt to diversify gas supplies, the Chinese government has reportedly increased the number of importers to 22.

In 2014, Russian energy giant Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a contract for gas deliveries via Power of Siberia - one of the world's longest gas pipelines currently under construction. Under the deal, China is set to buy 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas annually for 30 years. The supplies are scheduled to begin in December.

At the same time, Russian gas producer Novatek, in cooperation with the CNPC, is working on the implementation of Russian-led energy project Yamal LNG. China has purchased the first two batches of liquefied natural gas from Yamal.