Chinese journalists' questions to Miller centered around the mooted "western" and "eastern" gas pipelines to China, construction timeframes, and the East Siberian giant Kovytka field, which has proven reserves of over 2 trillion cubic meters and is controlled by British-Russian joint venture TNK-BP.
Russia is expected to build a "western" gas pipeline from its Arctic Yamal area and "eastern" pipelines that could supply gas to energy-hungry China and other Asian nations from Sakhalin oil fields in the Far East or the Kovykta deposit.
State-owned Gazprom, which coordinates all gas projects in East Siberia and the Far East, has reportedly decided to opt for Sakhalin-3 deposits, developed under product sharing agreements by a multinational consortium, as the main source of gas for the "eastern" line.
Under a cooperation agreement signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to China in March, the two pipelines are to supply up to 40 billion cubic meters of gas a year each. China is expected to start receiving gas in 2011.
Representatives of the press center, which will work in Beijing throughout 2006, the Year of Russia in China, said more video links with Russian government officials, oil executives, experts were being planned.
