Russia is discussing a possible "gas union" with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to support shipments between the three countries and to other energy buyers, including China, senior Russian officials said on Tuesday.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who mentioned shipments to China, provided no details of the plan.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the details of the agreement were yet to be discussed, but the key idea was coordinating supply plans.
He cited the example of northern Kazakhstan that imports gas from Russia and where the Astana government is considering building a pipeline to provide the region with Kazakh gas.
Russia, at the same time, is increasing production in nearby eastern Siberia, he said, hinting that Kazakhstan could avoid spending "tens of billions of dollars" on pipelines by committing to Russian imports.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's spokesperson said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed such an idea in a meeting with Tokayev on Monday.
"During negotiations in the Kremlin between the presidents of Kazakhstan and Russia, the creation of a ‘triple gas union' consisting of Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan was discussed in order to coordinate actions for the transportation of Russian gas through the territories of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan," Press Secretary of the Kazakh Presidency Ruslan Zheldibay wrote in a Facebook post.
Zheldibay said both the leaders believe in the necessity to "hold detailed negotiations, with the participation of experts from the three countries, to find a rational solution to this issue, taking into account the interests of all parties."
Tokayev is on an official visit to Moscow, his first since being reelected as the president for a new seven-year term last week.
On Monday, both Putin and Tokayev addressed a forum on interregional cooperation held in the Russian city of Orenburg via video conference.
Putin said Moscow is reorienting its exports and imports to new markets, noting that Russia remains one of the largest investors in the Kazakh economy, with the volume of capital investments amounting to almost $17 billion.
Tokayev highlighted that Russia and Kazakhstan were able to build "mutually beneficial economic cooperation," adding that the trade volume between the two countries reached "a new record high of $24.5 billion."
While Russia is a major natural gas exporter, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan produce roughly as much as they consume. The two countries are connected by a gas pipeline to Russia, and a separate pipeline cross both on its way to China.
However, both pipelines mostly pump gas from Turkmenistan, while Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have never reported any transit shipments of Russian gas to China or any other countries.
Russia, hit by Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine and the outage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, is keen to boost sales of its energy and commodities in Asia.
