In 2019 Russia piped 191 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe and almost none to China. In 2025 China took more than all of Europe, and it pays less than half the price.

Name: To Europe (charted by MacroSnaps)
Creator: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy (2026)
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

To Europe36 bcm(2025)To China37 bcm(2025)All Russian pipeline exports102 bcm(2025)

Gas Russia sent by pipeline, billion cubic metres a year. Dark: to Europe (EU, Turkey and the Balkans). Orange: to China. Grey: all Russia's pipeline exports. Russia stopped publishing in 2022, so later years come from buyers' records and 2026 is our part-year estimate.

Why this is happening

Europe walked away and bought from Norway and America instead. Russia cut off most EU countries after the 2022 invasion, Nord Stream was blown up, and Ukraine stopped carrying Russian gas in January 2025, leaving only the Black Sea line. Norway now sells the EU 30% of its imported gas and the United States 26%, all of it by ship. Russia is down to 12.5%, from 44% in 2021.
China filled only part of the hole. The Power of Siberia pipeline now runs flat out, and Gazprom keeps announcing new daily records for it in 2026, the latest on 10 November. But Europe stopped buying about 155 billion cubic metres a year and China took about 36. Russia's pipeline exports have more than halved since 2019.
And China pays far less. Russia's economy ministry expects China to pay $248 per thousand cubic metres in 2026, against $562 from Gazprom's other foreign customers. A second pipeline to China is stuck because the two sides cannot agree a price.

The take

A seller with one big buyer takes the price it is offered. Europe was the market that paid Gazprom best. Now Russia sends Europe a fifth as much by pipeline, sells to China at a 56% discount, and Gazprom made its first yearly loss in over 20 years in 2023. Losing Europe cost Russia more than the sales: it handed China the power to set the price.

Source: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy (2026)

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  <img src="https://macrosnaps.app/charts/russia-gas-turns-to-china.png" alt="Gas Russia sent by pipeline, billion cubic metres a year. Dark: to Europe (EU, Turkey and the Balkans). Orange: to China. Grey: all Russia's pipeline exports. Russia stopped publishing in 2022, so later years come from buyers' records and 2026 is our part-year estimate." width="640" style="max-width:100%;height:auto">
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  Chart: <a href="https://macrosnaps.app/c/russia-gas-turns-to-china">MacroSnaps</a>,
  <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>. Source: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy (2026).
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MacroSnaps (2026). "In 2019 Russia piped 191 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe and almost none to China. In 2025 China took more than all of Europe, and it pays less than half the price." Edition No. 125, 13 November 2026. https://macrosnaps.app/c/russia-gas-turns-to-china

Permanent link: https://macrosnaps.app/c/russia-gas-turns-to-china

The underlying data

MacroSnaps drew this chart. The numbers in it are published by Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy (2026). Their terms, not ours, govern the underlying data.