There may be some intersting competition here...
Yukos, China sign $2
billion oil pipeline deal
ST PETERSBURG, Russia
(Reuters) - Russia's second
largest oil producer Yukos said
on Saturday Russia and China
had signed an outline deal to
build an oil pipeline to China
between 2003 and 2005, Interfax
news agency reported.
Yukos, Russian state pipeline
monopoly Transneft and China's
National Oil Company signed the
agreement during talks in
Russian second city St
Petersburg between Russian
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov
and his Chinese counterpart Zhu
Ronghi.
The deal foresees Russia exporting 20 million tonnes of oil a year to China
through the pipeline - which will run from Angarsk in eastern Siberia - from 2005
to 2010. Exports should rise to 30 million tonnes a year from 2010-2030,
Interfax said.
The cost of construction, tariff levels and details of Russia and China's
cooperation on the project should be finalised by July 2002 and a blueprint of
the pipeline and its route should be ready by July 2003, Interfax quoted Yukos
as saying.
Yukos said other Russian oil companies could also become part of a deal
which Russia's Energy Ministry said on Friday would be worth $2 billion. "The
signing of a general agreement takes cooperation between Russian and
Chinese oil companies to a new level, with the creation of a new direction for
Russian oil exports and the diversification of energy sources for China," Interfax
quoted Yukos Chief Executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky as saying.
Imports of Russian oil have been included in China's strategic development plan
for 2001-2005 because of rapidly depleting energy sources.
China, a net crude importer since 1993, saw imports peak in 2000 at 60 million
tonnes, about a quarter of consumption. More than 60 percent of imported
crude came from the Middle East.
Last year China imported just 1.45 million tonnes of crude directly from Russia,
most of which was shipped by rail.
As well as a Russia-China pipeline, the Russian government is also to mull a
project for a possible pipeline to Russia's Pacific coast from the Siberian
hinterland, state pipeline monopoly Transneft said last week.
The government will decide whether to build both pipelines or just one sometime
after the middle of 2002. |
