What is the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline that Russia, China are planning?

Key points

• Analysts say Russia wants to replace lost gas revenue while China seeks to diversify and secure its energy supplies.
• On the agenda at this week’s Russia-China summit between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping is the long-delayed Power of Siberia 2 (POS-2) project, a proposed 2,600km (1,616-mile) natural gas pipeline that would carry Russian gas from western Siberia through Mongolia to China.
• On Wednesday, the two countries said they had reached an understanding about the route and construction of the pipeline, but other details have yet to be negotiated.
• Once built, the pipeline is expected to have a capacity of 50 billion cubic metres (1.77 trillion cubic feet) per year, equivalent to about 525 terawatt-hours of energy – nearly twice the United Kingdom’s annual electricity consumption.
• The pipeline would be nearly as large as Nord Stream 1, one of Russia’s most important former gas export routes to Europe, which had...