The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations

by Daniel Yergin

The pivot was very much in evidence on December 2, 2019. Five and a half years after the signing of the mega natural gas deal in Shanghai, the massive 1,865-mile Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline was ready to begin flowing gas. Vladimir Putin, in Sochi, and Xi Jinping, in Beijing, were joined by a complicated video hookup to control rooms on each side of the Russian-Chinese border to mark the inauguration of the pipeline. From their respective control rooms, Alexey Miller, CEO of Gazprom, and Wang Yilin, chairman of China National Petroleum Company, asked their presidents for approval, which each expeditiously gave. With that, the technicians opened the valves just in time to begin to supply China for the winter. “This is a genuinely historical event,” said Putin as the gas began to flow, “not only for the global energy market, but above all for us, Russia and China.”