The construction of the Altai gas pipeline from Russia to China through the Ukok protected plateau should be banned, since this is an invasion of Shambhala, ethnographers and ecologists say. Experts believe that there is no need to “bury” the gas pipeline - there are alternative options
Altai is a projected gas pipeline between a gas field in Western Siberia and Xinjiang in western China. The length is about 7 thousand kilometers. The project cost, according to various estimates, is $ 10-14 billion.
Without an agreement between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation on the gas price, no construction will begin.
Gazprom claims that all possible routes for laying the pipe have been considered. The choice of the route was made taking into account not only the economics of the project, but also the possible environmental consequences.
Greenpeace Russia insists that this project should be buried. Ecologists have long said that the Ukok plateau, through which a pipe should be laid, is a unique natural object. It is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, and if construction begins, then this Altai plateau can be assigned the status of a “World Heritage Site under Threat”. And this is a blow to the image of Russia.
In addition, ethnographers and the Altaians themselves associate this place with various mystical cults. They say that the mysterious Shambhala is located in Altai. Where is the exit? Experts suggest an alternative route - through Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Vitaly Mikhalchuk, an analyst of the Investkafe agency, shares this position:
“The pipe can make a small detour and bypass this area. On a Gazprom scale, this is not such a big problem - to spend an additional several hundred million dollars and bypass the protected area. But if, nevertheless, the question rises squarely: either there will be a gas pipeline and it will pass through this zone, or it will not exist at all, then I think that it will be laid the way Gazprom is going."
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Russian energy companies know how to argue with environmentalists. For example, Gazprom has successfully repulsed attacks by the Greens from Northern and Western Europe. They intimidated Europeans with an ecological catastrophe in the Baltic Sea after the laying of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Like, the project will result in the birth of fish with two heads.
At the same time, environmentalists often get their way. The Russian “greens” managed to insist that the route of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline be moved as far as possible from the protected Lake Baikal. This lengthened the pipe nearly 500 kilometers and made the project hundreds of millions of dollars heavier. But the result was a balance between the commercial interests of Rosneft and Transneft and the protection of the Baikal ecology.
The situation with Altai is much more complicated, says Mikhail Krutikhin, partner of the Rusenergy consulting company:
“The branch has nowhere to move. The sites in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, if the route is nevertheless changed, actually belong to the same Ukok plateau. There is no way to pass the pipe, bypassing this hill. In any case, the Chinese will never agree that the pipe passes through the territory of a third country. Even if they are given a big discount on gas prices in Russia. They only need a direct line across the border between Russia and China."
In Russia, they also consider the only acceptable route that excludes any transit risks. This is a politically verified and commercially calculated position. But to find a balance between the need to diversify gas export channels and the interests of protecting the protected region will still have to. Moreover, the ongoing negotiations between Moscow and Beijing on the price of Russian gas clearly demonstrate the demand for this project.