Sino-Russian energy cooperation is developing in depth

The oil trade has taken the lead in energy cooperation between China and Russia. The energy cooperation between the two countries is developing in depth. In the future, the prospects for the cooperation between the two countries' energy resources are “comprehensive, long-term and stable”.

■ Text/Reporter Lu Rongjie Zhang Wei A Sino-Russian crude oil pipeline received the grand courtesy of the top leaders of the two countries. Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally turned a round oil injection valve and opened Russia’s oil pipeline to Asia through the pipeline. China’s national government and Russian President Medvedev attended the ceremony. Attention and expectation all show that this pipeline has become an important milestone on the road to energy diplomacy between the two countries.

The two leaders jointly attended the pipeline completion ceremony and it is already the fifth meeting this year. In the most frequent high-level exchanges between the two countries, the cooperation between the two countries has also become more fruitful. During President Medvedev's visit to China from September 26 to 28, the two countries signed the "China-Russia Joint Statement on Deepening the Strategic Collaboration Partnership," and proposed to continue to promote the upstream, downstream, coal, natural gas, and nuclear power fields. Cooperation. Just as the national government commented: "The energy cooperation between China and Russia has entered a new phase since then."

"In recent years, both China and Russia have been very active in cooperation in the field of energy." Yang Cheng, deputy director of the East China Normal University Center for Russian Studies, said: "There has been an end to the history of Sino-Russian energy cooperation since the 1990s. "Different heat, the Sino-Russian energy cooperation has now entered a new stage of development that is both driven and steadily accelerated. Medvedev's visit to China once again proved this. The next 10 years may be a period of rapid expansion of Sino-Russian energy cooperation."

Stabilizing oil and gas cooperation Russian President Medvedev's visit to China has attracted the attention of the industry. As the ***** said, "This visit is a major event this year."

"Medvedev's major visit to China is energy cooperation. In all economic cooperation relations reached this time, energy relations are the key points for this visit." Vice President of China-Russia Relations Research Association, China Wang Haihang, director of the International Issues Committee's Energy Diplomacy Research Center, said.

“This time the two heads of state have personally launched the push button for the completion of the Sino-Russian crude oil pipeline. It is unprecedented for the two countries and it is significant. At the same time, it also shows that the energy cooperation between the two countries has made breakthrough progress.” China Institute of Contemporary International Relations Russia’s research expert Wang Yujiu said.

The completion of the Sino-Russian crude oil pipeline project means that the volume of Russian crude oil exported to China in the future will double on the original basis. As a neighbor of China, Russia’s crude oil supply to China may also exceed Iran’s, and the potential for the growth of Sino-Russian oil trade volume will be tapped with greater intensity.

During Medvedev’s trip, a large number of Russian business leaders attended the meeting. This unprecedented delegation of nearly 500 people visited almost all of Russia’s major industrial sectors, with the largest number of delegations in the energy field. In addition to Sechin, the first deputy prime minister in charge of energy, and Smatoco, the energy minister, the presidents of Russia Petroleum Corporation, Gazprom, Russia Petroleum Transport Corporation, Lukoil, and Russia’s Nuclear Industry Group also gathered in Beijing.

It is not difficult to see that another obvious manifestation of the upgrading of Sino-Russian energy cooperation is that there are numerous energy giants in the luxurious lineup of Russia’s visit to China.

When receiving an interview with Russian media before coming to China, Medvedev said: "Russia-China energy cooperation is a very important content of bilateral economic and trade relations. We intend to strengthen and develop this relationship."

As a major producer of natural gas, Russia also attaches great importance to natural gas negotiations with China. The 60-person negotiating team from the Gazprom has been stationed in Beijing since mid-September.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sechin said on September 27th in Beijing that at present, Gazprom has signed a document with China National Petroleum Corporation on the basic conditions for the supply of gas to China. The document stated that China and Russia have reached an agreement on the main conditions for the supply of natural gas to China by Russia. If both parties reach an agreement on all issues, Russia can begin to deliver natural gas to China from 2015. The only issue that has not yet been settled is that the core issue of cooperation is the supply price. Although Sechin optimistically predicted that the Sino-Russian gas supply commercial contract may be signed before mid-2011. However, the disparity in natural gas prices between China and Russia is still an indisputable fact.

The promotion of oil refining sector “Russian crude oil entering the Chinese side will not only meet China’s energy needs, but will also promote Sino-Russian cooperation in the field of petrochemicals.” Associate Professor, Center for International Studies, Fudan University, Center for Research in Russia and Central Asia, Energy Economics, Fudan University Xu Haiyan, deputy director of the Strategic Research Center said.

In fact, as the "front stop" for this visit, Vice Premier Wang Qishan and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sechin have already held the sixth meeting of the Chinese and Russian energy negotiators in Tianjin on September 21. The main content of the negotiations focused on the oil source of the Tianjin refinery. It is reported that most of the 13 million tons of Tianjin refinery production capacity will come from Russia, while the other part of the crude oil will likely come from Saudi Arabia.

The oil refinery project has an investment of more than 30 billion yuan and an annual output of 10.5 million tons of refined oil. The products are sold to the domestic market. This project is the first Sino-Russian oil processing cooperation project, and it is Russia's first time in China's oil downstream business. To this end, Dongfang Petrochemical will develop its own refined oil sales network and establish and develop 300 to 500 gas stations in the north. On Sep. 21, Xie Qin also attended the foundation stone laying ceremony of the 13 million-ton/year joint venture refining project of Sinopec Eastern Petrochemical.

Dongfang Petrochemical under construction obviously cannot fully absorb the capacity of China-Russia crude oil pipelines of 15 million tons/year. In fact, at the beginning of the Sino-Russian crude oil pipeline construction, a series of related projects were put on the agenda.

“From the perspective of domestic refineries, Russia does not like Russian oil, the oil rate is relatively small, but also contains *, corrosion equipment.” Industry sources said. Russia's oil refining equipment has relatively high requirements. From the domestic actual situation, it is necessary to install some devices, or to expand or build new production capacity.

PetroChina's reconstruction and expansion project, which was positioned as an important support point for China-Russia oil agreement, was officially started on July 20 last year. It is China's first fully-processed Russian crude oil base for 10 million tons. The project will be completed by the end of 2010. At that time, its receiving capacity will reach 10 million tons/year, and it will be used for the refining of Russian oil.

On May 26 of this year, Liaoyang Petrochemical’s long-distance transmission pipeline for refined oil products, which was supplied with the project, began to be put into operation. Relying on this pipeline, 2.8 million tons of high-grade diesel will be sent to Yingkou Port each year, and they will be boarded directly into the sea and exported to the South Market.

Deep energy cooperation In the context of the financial crisis, the speed of Sino-Russian energy cooperation has accelerated significantly, and some breakthroughs have also been made. "Energy cooperation is indeed a fundamental change," said Li Jingyu, director of the Regional Economic Research Institute of the Economic Development Research Center of Liaoning Normal University.

On September 21, Wang Qishan pointed out at the sixth meeting of the Sino-Russian energy negotiators that the Sino-Russian crude oil pipeline project will soon be completed, natural gas cooperation will be intensified, coal cooperation will expand rapidly, power trade will advance steadily, and nuclear energy cooperation will proceed smoothly. In the energy efficiency and new energy and energy equipment manufacturing and other fields also carried out active cooperation.

In addition to the oil and gas cooperation that has achieved outstanding achievements, the cooperation between the two sides in power is also steadily advancing. On August 27, 2009, the Russian hydropower company started work on the construction of the Lower Blesk Hydroelectric Power Station in Amur Region, mainly for exporting electricity to China.

Cooperation in the field of coal has also shown dynamism. In 2009, the amount of coal investment by both parties has reached US$1 billion. Not long ago, China and Russia signed a 6 billion U.S. dollar coalition agreement.

The two sides have also carried out many years of close cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. China's Jiangsu Lianyungang (6.66, 0.02, 0.30%) Tianwan Nuclear Power Station No. 1 and No. 2 generating units have completed the transfer of delivery operations. On September 27, the two sides also signed a technical design program contract for the construction of No. 3 and No. 4 generating units of Tianwan Nuclear Power Station. At the same time, China and Russia will expand cooperation in seven new areas such as the construction of floating nuclear power plants, nuclear emergency research, and mineral exploration.

Xu Haiyan believes that before, the energy cooperation between China and Russia was still based on energy trade, and "grabbing China-Russia oil and gas pipeline cooperation is like seizing the main link of a chain, bringing up the entire chain, and driving many aspects. And multi-level cooperation."

Sino-Russian energy cooperation is developing in depth. "The new era of China-Russia full-chain, multi-field, and comprehensive energy cooperation has begun," concluded Song Kui, a researcher at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.

The agreement signed between China and Russia will determine the mutual participation of capital. "This will help expand and deepen cooperation in the future. For example, it will expand into new energy and high-tech fields," said Xu Haiyan. “From the luxurious lineup of this visit to China, it can be seen that Russia is ready for comprehensive cooperation. It is believed that the whole chain, multi-field and comprehensive energy cooperation between the two sides can develop in a healthy, long-term and stable manner.” Song Kui full of confidence Said.

“For China and Russia, it is expected that the level of energy cooperation will continue to increase after 2010. However, energy cooperation is a very complicated matter involving the game of interests between the two sides, the international market, the economic environment, and bilateral relations. It is not a one-time effort to proceed in a down-to-earth manner, and China still needs to fully understand the differences in interests between the two sides, face up to potential conflicts and risks, continuously improve risk management capabilities, and consolidate the long-term, comprehensive, and diversified strategic cooperation that is taking shape. What's more, the two countries must consolidate the consensus in their cooperation and gradually create a common culture of energy cooperation that promotes common prosperity.” Yang Cheng reminded.