(Bloomberg) -- Gazprom PJSC delivered a record daily amount of natural gas to China on Sunday, while shipments to European customers languished at multiyear lows.

The rise in exports to Asia isn’t a reaction to the deterioration of Moscow’s relations with the West, but it’s indicative of a long-term realignment of energy flows that could be accelerated by the invasion of Ukraine. 

Since Russia’s pipeline gas supplies to China started in late 2019, shipments have been increasing steadily, due to reach at least 15 billion cubic meters in 2022, compared with 10.4 billion cubic meters delivered last year. 

In February, as President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing in the buildup to the war, Gazprom signed a second deal to deliver a further 10 billion cubic meters a year over 25 years via a new pipeline. A few weeks later, the company also signed a contract to design the Soyuz Vostok link across Mongolia toward China, which could carry as much as 50 billion cubic meters a year. 

Meanwhile, Gazprom has been reducing deliveries to Europe. Some customers were cut off after refusing to comply with Kremlin’s demand to be paid in rubles for supplies. Russia has been sending less gas through pipelines in Ukraine, and via the Nord Stream link to Germany due to a spat with Siemens Energy AG over gas turbines. 

There’s no direct physical connection to these two trends. Gazprom supplies gas to China from its fields in east Siberia, which aren’t linked to its west-bound pipelines. But the company is working on building an inter-connector that could one day to allow it to re-direct gas from its European neighbors to new customers in Asia.

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