Russia's state-run Gazprom has deepened its partnership with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to advance long-stalled coalbed methane (CBM) projects in East Siberia, said the Russian energy giant in a statement.

At a recent joint coordinating committee meeting in Beijing, Gazprom and CNPC signed two intercorporate standards focused on CBM field development. The agreement aims to unify technical protocols and leverage CNPC's deep drilling and hydrofracturing expertise, skills honed at Daji and Qinshui fields in northern China.

As a major player in China's CBM sector, CNPC's CBM production exceeded 6 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2024, including 2.3 bcm from reservoirs deeper than 1,500 meters.

Gazprom has researched CBM potential in coal-rich Kuzbass for nearly 30 years but has struggled to move beyond trial sites. Its most promising asset, the Naryksko-Ostashkinskoye field, holds an estimated 165 bcm in recoverable reserves, the largest in the region, according to Gazpromdobycha Kuznetsk.

Yet the development plan was shelved due to anticipated high production costs, it said.

Western sanctions following the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict also forced Gazprom to suspend exports to Europe and shut in an estimated 100 bcm per annum of conventional gas output in West Siberia in 2023.

China, already the recipient of Russian gas via the Power of Siberia pipeline, has emerged as a critical partner.

Gas exports through the Power of Siberia reached 31.12 bcm in 2024 and are set to surpass 38 bcm in 2025, its full design capacity, Tass reported. In the first three quarters of 2025, Gazprom increased supplies via the Power of Siberia by more than 27%.

A 30-year, $400 billion contract signed in 2014 between Gazprom and CNPC underpins these flows, with total supply expected to exceed 1 trillion cubic meters.

Following President Putin's visit to Beijing in August-September 2025, Russia and China agreed to expand annual gas deliveries to 106 bcm through new routes, including the planned Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline with a capacity of 50 bcm.

The two parties decided to increase annual supplies to 44 bcm of gas from the projected 38 bcm for the Power of Siberia pipeline, and to boost supplies by 2 bcm from 10 to 12 bcm per year for the Far Eastern corridor under construction.