China, Russia Strengthen Cooperation in EnergyChina and Russia are expected to speed up their study on the feasibility of developing a gas field in east Siberia and piping the gas to China and other countries.The two countries would start the feasibility study on piping gas to China from the offshore gas field near Sakhalin Island, and supplying south China with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from an offshore oil field at an early date, according to the just-concluded 9th International Seminar on Peace and Development in Northeast Asia. These are only a few cooperative programs between China and Russia in the energy field. The two countries have reached agreements on extending their cooperation to petroleum and natural gas, including providing China with crude oil and product oil at reciprocal prices, building a natural gas pipeline network in China, establishing a unified power grid in China, and jointly developing gas and oil fields in the two countries. Xia Shanyi, a researcher with the Institute of International Studies, said that Sino-Russian cooperation in the energy field has been strengthened since the 1990s. China became a net gas importer in 1993. The gap between demand and supply was enlarged annually. The gas consumption this year was estimated at 50 million tons. Russia owns 13 percent of the world's oil reserves and 45 percent of the world's natural gas reserves, which are located in Siberia and the Far East. Cooperation in oil and gas between the two countries is also open to other foreign businesses. Companies from the United States, Japan, and Republic of Korea planned to take part in the cooperative program. |
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