Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Africa

Unfulfilled potential

By Zhang Haizhou | China Daily | Updated: 2013-02-22 11:38
Share
Share - WeChat

China, Russia energy alliance should also include gas deals, says Oxford researcher

Too much talk and very little action sum up the two-decade old energy cooperation between China and Russia, says Keun-Wook Paik, senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and author of Sino-Russian Oil and Gas Cooperation: The Reality and Implications.

Paik's 506-page book highlights the progress made by the two nations in energy cooperation over the last two decades and also goes into the details of the trade, investment and financial arrangements of the relationship.

"This book is my legacy," says Paik, adding that he has been ploughing a lone furrow since there aren't many scholars doing research on the subject.

His book is the first major comparative study on Sino-Russian oil and gas relations that also explains how the significant and subtle characteristics of the oil and gas sectors in the two nations have led to contrasting outcomes.

Paik says that during the 1990s there were great expectations that the changed international environment would trigger favorable Sino-Russian bilateral oil and gas cooperation deal, and its subsequent extension into multilateral cooperation in northeast Asia.

"Progress, however, has been very slow and frustrating," he says in his book. "All that we have seen are several rounds of discussions and studies without any real agreements."

He says that his book attempts to analyze the core beliefs that govern the complex relationships between the two sides and also to explain why the results were often not commensurate with the anticipated returns. At the same time, the book also attempts to analyze how the developments of the last two decades will have an impact now.

Despite his pessimism on the overall progress of the talks, Paik says that there have also been positive outcomes.

The "most tangible achievement" has been in the oil sector, he says, referring to the first section of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline that was completed in 2009, along with the spur pipeline to China at the end of August 2010.

With the completion of the Mohe-Daqing section of the pipeline in October 2010, 300,000 barrels of crude oil have started to flow to China from Russia on a daily basis.

The Tianjin joint venture refinery set up by China National Petroleum Corp and Russian energy firm Rosneft is another example of "tangible progress", he says.

Paik says that it is now important for China to ensure a steady supply of crude from Russia to Heilongjiang because crude output from the oil fields in three northeastern Chinese provinces, in particular the Daqing field, have declined significantly.

Feng Yujun, head of Russian studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, says that China imported nearly 20 million tons of crude from Russia last year. In other words, Russia accounted for 9 percent of China's imported crude supplies.

The real problem, Paik says, is that while progress is being made on the oil front, there has been little progress in natural gas.

The prospects for stronger Sino-Russian oil cooperation in the next two decades are skewed more toward gas rather than oil, Paik argues in his book.

Beijing's need for pipeline gas from Russia is not as desperate as its need for Russian oil, he says in explaining the two countries' different stances on gas cooperation.

Gazprom, which has a monopoly over Russian gas exports to Asia, prioritizes Altai (West Siberian) gas exports to western China, while Beijing gives more priority to the supply of East Siberian gas to its northeastern region.

Beijing's planners "are fully aware of the risks involved in Gazprom's strategy of prioritizing Altai rather than East Siberian gas exports", Paik argues in the book, referring to the EU's contracting appetite for Russian (West Siberian) gas after the global financial crisis.

These differences are prompting Gazprom to adopt a more aggressive Asian gas export policy, Paik says, adding that Beijing "is uncomfortable with" Gazprom's "swing supplier" strategy between the EU and China.

If a pipeline network is built to divert the European gas supplies to Asia, "it would be a nightmare for European buyers as it gives Russia undue leverage".

This also partially explains why Chinese policymakers, "particularly (Premier) Wen Jiabao", have repeatedly stressed that China's priority is not Altai gas, but East Siberian gas.

"The Chinese planners have no wish to be blamed for 'robbing' the Europeans. The key point is that they can obtain Central Asian gas from other countries like Turkmenistan," Paik says.

Apart from the strategic concern, Russia's demand for "unattractively high prices" is another key reason why Sino-Russian gas cooperation has not progressed.

Paik says that the current outlook is still skewed in the favor of oil, while gas potential may remain largely under-utilized.

A failure of the Sino-Russian gas relationship will "deprive both countries of a potential win-win solution to their energy and development problems, and increase future global rivalry in the market for liquefied natural gas", he says.

The failure would also force China to significantly expand gas imports, he argues. This would then increase the competition for LNG supplies not just between LNG importers in Northeast Asia, but also for other buyers of LNG in regions as far as Europe.

Though he started working on the book in 2007, Paik says his "own long march" of research into Sino-Russian oil and gas began in 1983, the same year when he began to study international relations in Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

He didn't expect the long march to last for over three decades.

Paik initially focused on researching China's oil politics. But in 1989 when he arrived at the Aberdeen University in Scotland for his PhD, his mentor encouraged him to add gas also to his field of studies.

Paik admits that he was not so sure of enlarging the scope of his studies, but soon realized that it was "something he had to do".

His first book, Gas and Oil in Northeast Asia: Policies, Projects and Prospects, was published by Chatham House, or the Royal Institute of International Affairs, based in London, in 1995.

The Petroleum Industry Press in Beijing published the Chinese version of Sino-Russian Oil and Gas Cooperation: the Reality and Implications in late January.

zhanghaizhou@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/22/2013 page20)

Today's Top News

Editor's picks

Most Viewed

Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 一卡二卡三卡在线观看| 亚洲欧美国产免费综合视频| 久久国产精彩视频| 狠狠精品干练久久久无码中文字幕| 国产女人乱人伦精品一区二区| 99精品热女视频专线| 日本人与动zozo| 亚洲国产成人久久一区二区三区| 精品国产精品久久一区免费式| 国产成人精品免费视频大全五级 | 久久一本精品久久精品66| 欧美日韩亚洲国内综合网香蕉| 午夜影院a级片| 黑色丝袜小舞被躁翻了3d| 国产高清av在线播放| 一区二区中文字幕在线观看| 日本精品视频在线播放| 亚洲国产日产无码精品| 男人精品网站一区二区三区| 国产中文字幕在线免费观看| 一区二区三区精品视频| 日韩欧美中文字幕在线视频| 亚洲欧美日韩在线一区| 精品国产亚洲第一区二区三区| 国产成人亚洲欧美激情| 4hu四虎永久地址| 夫妇交换性2国语在线观看| 久久99精品久久久久久齐齐| 有夫之妇bd中文字幕| 亚洲精品www久久久久久| 精品久久人妻av中文字幕| 国产亚洲人成a在线v网站| a级片免费在线播放| 无码无套少妇毛多69XXX| 亚洲AV人无码综合在线观看| 欧美视频在线免费看| 免费大片黄在线观看| 美女脱了内裤打开腿让人桶网站o 美女脱了内裤打开腿让你桶爽 | 国产午夜精品无码| jizzjizz成熟丰满舒服| 成人欧美一区二区三区的电影|