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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Putin fails to satisfy China's hunger for energy |
| 2006-03-21 |
| China and Russia signed a broad deal to strengthen energy relations today, agreeing to build two giant gas pipelines, but stopped short of confirming the construction of a crude oil pipeline desperately wanted by Beijing to answer the country's energy needs. On his fourth visit to Beijing in five years, President Vladimir Putin met President Hu Jintao and agreed a long-term strategy of energy co-operation intended to bind ever more tightly the world's second largest energy producer to the second largest consumer. In tune with the intense cordiality of the meeting - this is the "Year of Russia" in China and 2007 is the "Year of China" in Russia - the two sides agreed to build two long-anticipated pipelines to bring between 60 and 80 billion cubic metres of natural gas every year from Russia's gasfields to China's factories. Alexei Miller, the chief executive of Gazprom, the Russian gas giant, said that the first deliveries were expected in five years. The Interfax news agency quoted a member of the Russian negotiating team saying the pipelines would cost around $10 billion (£5.7 billion). "This about diversifying supplies. Today we’ve defined the timeframe and volumes for Gazprom’s entry on to the Chinese market. These are major volumes," said Mr Miller. Among 15 financial deals signed by the governments, a separate commitment was also made to increase co-operation and the refining capacities of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the Chinese oil and gas monopoly, and Rosneft, the Russian oil company. But progress on an $11.5 billion (£6.6 billion) crude oil pipeline that aims to connect Siberia and the great Asian energy consumers of China, South Korea and Japan, remains held up by environmental and planning concerns in Russia. Viktor Khristenko, the Russian Energy Minister and one of an entourage of 90 politicians and Russian industrialists accompanying Mr Putin to China, said that it was still to early to set a date for the completion of the project, which will carry 600,000 barrels of oil a day. "We will only be able to answer that once we’ve done the feasibility study," he said. "We intend to build it. There is nothing forbidding it, but first there should be a feasibility study according to the rules." The slow planning process and the lack of movement in international negotiations over the pipeline -- which are believed to hinge on the financial contributions each country is willing to make -- prompted China's top energy planner, Zhang Guobao, to make unusually blunt remarks ahead of Mr Putin's visit earlier this week. "One moment Russia is saying they have made a decision, the next saying that no decision has been made. To date, there has been no correct information. This is regrettable," he said. Some oil analysts have also questioned whether Russia has the resources in Siberia to justify the pipeline and whether Mr Putin is using the project as a bargaining chip in his negotiations with Russia's European energy customers. "I don’t see where Russia in the foreseeable future can pile up these resources," Valery Nesterov, oil and gas analyst at the Troika Dialog investment bank in Moscow told the Associated Press. "Russia is saying it has markets. In a way, it’s a form of pressure on Europe." In comments on international relations, Mr Putin and Mr Hu affirmed their commitment to seeking a diplomatic resolution to the Iran's nuclear confrontation with the UN. Both countries have acted to soften the stance taken by the EU and the America towards Tehran. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #5 Look, none of this would be at issue, if not for, uhmmm, so-called "American" businessmen selling, no, giving the rope, in trade for vague future promises, to the mercantile beast still known as red China. red China gets its military steroids by way of transfusions provided, happily, by I-Got-Mine-Jack capitalists who happen to reside in Boston, and New York, and San Fransicko, and North Carolina, and Washington. A long time friend I know who works for a major "American" financial services firm has revealed to me that his company is about to transfer all of its trading system development, and systems administrative authority, to a franchise "technology center" in red China. The impetus behind this is to slash domestic technology costs, and provide wider bonuses to the short-timer "helmsmen" who stand to benefit. That this kind of move puts America's financial services short and curlies in the hands of a hostile power is of no apparent concern to the "helmsmen." They have already crafted 8 figure parachutes designed to deliver them from the danger zone, long before Sarbanes-Oxley figures out the major malfunction. So, who can speak ill of the chi-coms and their desire to simply keep their newly acquired systems powered on? |
| Posted by: IT Insider 2006-03-21 22:50 |
| #4 SPACEWAR.com has an article entitled THE SINO-RUSSIAN SUPERPOWER, whilst Asia Times [ATIMES .com] has several articles of note, espec THE RISE AND RISE OF THE UN-WEST, and THE SINO-RUSSIAN ROMANCE. RIAN.RU and THEMOSCOWTIMES report that Russian subs will be remapping the Artic shelves for the first time since the end of the Cold War, ostens to define Russia's borders espec Russia's alleged proximity to millions of metric tons of embedded oil-like hydro-carbon reserves. These articles subtledly infer or hint that America may yet end up being a victim of "regime change" itself as the post-Cold War unipolar society of nations seeemingly evolves to a multipolar one of mostly/heavily Muslim, nuclearized states. SPACEWAR's article makes it clear that despite any Russ0-Chinese rapprochement, China intends to [de facto]challenge America for global preeminence, and that while Lenin may had said that Capitalists will sell the every rope Marxists-Communists hang the Capitalists from, Russia needs to look after itself carefully becuz, "after Mongolia, Russian territory is the final frontier" FOR CHINA. IOW, while Russia-China may proclaim post-WOT to have saved the world from alleged Bush/GOP-led Male Brute Fascist America, it remains to be seen iff they can save the world from each other. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-03-21 21:54 |
| #3 This ties in directly with the Chinese telling Kimmie boy to grow his own infrastructure. If the Chinese are short of fuel, they surely don't want to give any away to the crackpot head of NORK |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2006-03-21 21:21 |
| #2 Iff memory serves, methinks that several years ago the Russian government itself publicly announced their country only had enough available [read - cheap] oil reserves for maxima 20-25 years. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-03-21 20:35 |
| #1 Siberia is rich in natural gas and the russians can only spare two old women with brooms to guard it. Say goodbye to Russia, sibera, and hello to China! |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-03-21 15:18 |