The hottest Sino Russian energy cooperation disput

Disputes over energy cooperation between China and Russia have resumed, and Russia wants to sue PetroChina for defaulting on loans

"China should open its market and develop natural gas, crude oil and other resources by itself. Because if it wants to ensure energy security, it must have its own oil and gas. If it doesn't, it can't be safe at all. At the same time, to ensure China's energy security, it only needs more enterprises and more funds to enter, and there will be more technology to help develop more natural gas."

the dispute between China, a major energy demander, and Russia, a major energy supplier, continues. A few days ago, according to media reports, "since CNPC did not pay the full amount of oil money to the Russian oil pipeline transportation company, the latter plans to use a similar concept to sue the former to the international arbitration court, and at the same time said that it will repay the $10billion loan provided by China in advance."

in the view of analysts, although this move will not lead Russia to stop energy supply to China, it may add tension to the natural gas negotiations. Experts pointed out that the disputes between China and Russia on the "oil for loan" and natural gas negotiations showed that China should not only rely on external forces to ensure its energy security, but also establish its own development system, so that more enterprises besides the "three barrels of oil" can participate in the development of natural gas and crude oil resources to ensure supply

Russia wants to sue China for delaying loans

China is the third largest energy consumer after the United States and Japan. Today, with rising demand, China has been seeking cooperation in energy supply with major energy producing countries to ensure China's energy supply and energy security. Russia, which depends on the export of oil and natural gas resources, naturally becomes one of the preferred regions for Chinese energy enterprises, and Russia can also obtain its much-needed foreign exchange resources from its energy exports to China. It is understood that the cooperation between China and Russia in energy has long been carried out - not only the energy cooperation is often "talked about" in the meeting of national leaders, but also the China Russia crude oil pipeline was officially opened on January 1. DuPont Hongji will also strengthen its efforts to become an energy strategic channel in Northeast China

under the above background, the supply cooperation between China and Russia on oil and natural gas has been continuously promoted in recent years. Statistics show that in 2009, Rosneft and the oil pipeline transportation company signed a 20-year oil supply agreement with PetroChina. China lent $15billion and $10billion respectively to two Russian companies to obtain 300 million tons of Russian oil

"this dispute may be due to the signing of the contract at that time." Yesterday, linboqiang, director of the China Energy Economy Research Center at Xiamen University, said, "there may be a computational gap between Russia and China, especially in the signing of prices. In fact, earlier this year, the two sides had differences on supply prices. At the same time, due to the continuous improvement of Russian oil exports in recent years, they also have the confidence to challenge China." According to a report by an informed analyst quoted by the media, "the correction coefficient (controversial range) of Russian oil freight is $3/barrel, and China opposes the use of this coefficient."

what worries people is that relevant Russian enterprises have continuously disclosed in recent months that they do not rule out suing PetroChina in the international arbitration court for insufficient payment. In this regard, I called PetroChina yesterday, but as of press time, there has been no reply. In response, Lin Boqiang said, "for its own interests, it cannot be ruled out that Russia will stop supplying oil to China because of this incident. Before, Russia has cut off the natural gas supply to Ukraine and other places because of the price failure."

however, some analysts believe that Russia may not completely terminate its oil supply to China, "On the one hand, China is a major energy consumer, and Russia will not give up this huge market; on the other hand, Russia urgently needs to exchange oil for foreign exchange resources and accelerate the transformation of its domestic economy. Even if it finally tears its skin, in view of the benefits of energy supply and energy security, the leaders of China and Russia will sit down and negotiate this matter"

or affect the natural gas negotiations

what is more worrying is that the cooperation disputes between the two sides on the "loan for oil" project or affect the Sino Russian marathon natural gas negotiations are more cost-effective. The project negotiation has not made substantive progress for several years. According to the data, Gazprom reached an intentional natural gas export agreement with China in 1999, and began formal contact in 2005. In March 2006, China and Russia signed the memorandum of understanding on the supply of natural gas from Russia to China. "It is planned that Russia will export 60billion to 80billion cubic meters of natural gas to China every year from 2011." On October 13, 2009, the two countries signed a framework agreement to clarify the direction of future cooperation and negotiation: determine to adopt two options for gas transmission from Russia: the western route and the eastern route - it is reported that "the former is based on the resources of western Siberia, with an annual gas supply of about 30billion cubic meters; the latter involves natural gas fields in eastern Siberia, the Far East and the Sakhalin continental shelf, with an annual gas supply of about 38billion cubic meters."

"but the progress of real implementation into practical action is relatively limited." Lin Boqiang told the international finance news, "this is due to the rising price of natural gas, as well as the disputes between Russia and China, the loan plan and other aspects. The variables of the 'oil for loan' plan have increased the uncertainty of the negotiation." In fact, as early as at a media meeting on May 18 this year, Jiang Jiemin, chairman of PetroChina Corporation in charge of relevant projects, revealed a difference between the two sides: Russia should focus on promoting the western line, but China believes that it should focus on promoting the development of the eastern line, and believes that "this is realistic and possible". However, he stressed that China and Russia are "strategic cooperation", and both sides have reached a consensus on technical conditions and business

however, according to media reports, the two sides did not agree on the price. It is said that Russia once charged 350 US dollars per cubic kilometer (the price of Russian exports to Europe), and there was a price difference of more than 120 US dollars between Russia and China. Subsequently, Russia reduced the price to $250, but in the view of experts, China is still unable to bear the price. According to the publicly available data of PetroChina, even if Russia accepts the price of $230 proposed by China, "it will lose 1 yuan per cubic meter"

in this regard, Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of China energy, suggested, "China should open its market and develop natural gas, crude oil and other resources by itself. Because if we want to ensure energy security, we must have our own oil and gas. If we don't have it, we can't talk about security at all. At the same time, to ensure China's energy security, we can only need more enterprises and plastic industries as the key to develop emerging industries, and more funds to enter, so that there will be more technology to help develop more natural gas."

Lin Boqiang suggested that the compromise is to form a win-win situation between the two sides, "Russia continues to supply oil and gas resources to the Chinese market. At the same time, China can also appropriately open the market and let Russian energy enterprises participate."

note: the reprinted content is indicated with the source. The reprint is for the purpose of transmitting more information, and does not mean to agree with its views or confirm the authenticity of its content