Russia and China Agree To Unprecedented Energy Cooperation, Focus Reports
Release Date: 2010-09-27
In an effort to develop and expand mutually beneficent trade practices, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese president Hu Jintao met for the fifth time this year in Beijing to discuss a modicum of concerns, chief amongst them energy propagation. Russia, the world’s largest producer and exporter of crude oil, plans to serve a pivotal role in China’s growing energy consumption. China is already the world’s largest energy consumer.The two presidents took part in a ceremony to honor operations commencement in the Skovorodino-Daqing oil pipeline, a channel that is expected to drive 15 million metric tons of oil per year (300,000 barrels per day) from Eastern Siberia to Daqing. The Skovorodino-Daqing section is an extension of the West Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline, which Russia uses to export oil to China and other Asian-Pacific markets. This network of conduits is built and operated by Russian oil giant Transneft—with assistance, in China, from the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNCP). The nations signed a $25 billion, 20-year agreement; the pipeline will be completely functional by November 1st. President Jintao remarked that the “smooth completion of the pipeline” is a "milestone for China-Russia energy cooperation.”
Several further contracts are also in development, regarding oil and other energy sources. Russian company Rosneft, and China’s CNCP, are constructing a $5 billion oil refinery in Tianjin. The Russian gas producer Gazprom and the CNCP reached a gas delivery agreement, wherein Gazprom will supply 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year, for 30 years. Work will soon start on two additional nuclear reactors at China’s Tianwan facility, to be built by Russia’s state-owned nuclear company Rosatom. Federal agencies from both countries drafted plans for coal-mining cooperation, and signed a memorandum concerning energy efficiency and renewables.
This series of cooperative agreements puts economic ties between Russia and China at unprecedented levels of intimacy. Medvedev declared that relations between the two superpowers were at their “highest point;” Jintao echoed his sentiments, calling their galvanized bond a “new start.”
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in speaking about the Skovorodino-Daqing pipeline, observed that “for China, these are stable deliveries to the country's energy balance, and for us an exit to new promising markets and in this particular case, to the expanding Chinese market.” The same can be said about all of Russia’s recent fuel export efforts in the Sino nation.
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Company: | Focus Reports |
| Country: | Switzerland |