SINGAPORE: Russian natural gas transported to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline touched 28.8 million cubic metres per day, as of Jan. 3, to feed homes and factories as northern China faces frigid weather conditions, national oil and gas pipeline giant PipeChina said.

This will put on track an annual volume of 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) for 2021, double last year's level, state-run infrastructure group PipeChina said on Sunday, without providing comparison figures of the supply level prior to Jan. 3.

The increased volume of supply was due to a new 1,110-km (689.72 miles) pipeline extension in December that starts at Changling in northeast China's Jilin and ends at Yongqing in northern China's top steelmaking region of Hebei.

The Power of Siberia project has pumped 1.13 bcm of gas to China since the heating season started around mid-November, with most of it headed to smog-prone Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions.

Russian gas giant Gazprom said on Monday it had increased gas supplies via the pipeline in line with 2021 contractual obligations.

The volumes now are double those in the last quarter 2020. It has plans to reach annual peak supply of 38 bcm by 2025.