MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia plans to export 68 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China annually by 2020, the president of the Russian Gas Union said on Thursday.
Valery Yazev, who is also deputy chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, said that Russia planned to supply up to 30 million metric tons (220 million barrels) of crude oil to China via a branch line of the East Siberia - Pacific Ocean pipeline (ESPO).
The ESPO pipeline is slated to pump up to 1.6 million barrels of crude per day from Siberia to Russia's Far East and then onto China and the Asia-Pacific region.
Yazev said trade between Russia and China was expected to expand from $48 billion in 2007 to around $60 billion in 2008.
