Construction of a Russian-Chinese natural gas pipeline transiting through Mongolia will begin in 2024, the landlocked country’s prime minister hassaid.The Power of Siberia-2 pipeline, which will deliver Europe-bound gas from western Siberian fields to China for the first time, is expected to go online in 2030. Energy industry executives expect the timeline to accelerate due Moscow’s souring relations with the West over the war in Ukraine and the subsequent shrinking European market for its key export.Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai said that he expects construction of the Power of Siberia-2’s Mongolian branch to go ahead despite the war.“The feasibility study of this project has finished and we believe construction will begin in 2024,” Luvsannamsrai told the Financial Times in an interview published Monday.He added that Moscow had not pressured Ulaanbaatar to accelerate construction of the Power of Siberia-2 line despite Russian energy giant Gazprom’s planned pivot to Asia.The planned capacity of the 2,600-kilometer Power of Siberia-2 is 50 billion cubic meters. Russia and Mongolia signed a memorandum of understanding in 2019 to study the Power of Siberia-2’s feasibility across Mongolia.Luvsannamsrai told FT the final route of Power of Siberia-2 was still being “deliberated.”