- (AFP) -- Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said
a long-awaited 2.5-billion-dollar oil pipeline deal with Beijing had been
postponed, but Moscow was still committed to helping China meet its energy
needs.
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- Russia was still conducting technical and environmental
studies for the construction of a 2,400-kilometer (1,500-mile) pipeline
from its Angarsk oil fields in Siberia to refineries in northeastern China's
Daqing city, Kasyanov said on Wednesday.
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- "I personally believe in order to better improve
the basic technical plan and meet the environmental needs we still need
three or four months of time," he said in a press conference after
meeting his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao.
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- "Can you say this is a postponement? Yes, you can."
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- The project has been discussed for some 10 years, with
many expecting a Russian decision during Kasyanov's visit.
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- Talks between the premiers appeared mostly focused on
economic ties between the two Asian giants.
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- Afterwards they oversaw the signing of six agreements,
including a joint communique, a protocol on improving trade of "sensitive
products" -- which the two sides refused to identify, and a banking
agreement.
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- Wen told journalists that China viewed cooperation in
the oil industry as central to the "strategic partnership of cooperation"
established between former presidents Boris Yeltsin and Jiang Zemin in
the mid-1990s.
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- "We both believe that to strengthen cooperation
in the oil industry is a major part of our cooperation," Wen said.
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- "Both sides believe that the most logical way to
transport oil is through the oil pipeline and ... both sides expressed
the government joint communiques, agreements and commitments (on the project)
should be honored."
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- The project has increasingly come under threat from a
rival Japanese project, which observers have said may be more attractive
to the Russians because it could help bring in much-needed funding from
Japan.
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- The Japanese project would extend the pipeline some 800
kilometers (500 miles) more to the Pacific ocean, where the Russian crude
could be immediately placed on global markets.
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- Although vowing to make efforts to "provide for
China's energy needs," Kasyanov stressed the project needed to get
final environmental approval, while the Russian government could only urge
and not mandate Russian companies to export oil to China.
-
- "I also need to stress on the fact that 100 percent
or 95 percent of our oil industry and development of the eastern oil fields
is done by private enterprises," Kasyanov said.
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- "So the Russian government can only provide support
and encouragement to develop oil resources and export oil to certain destinations."
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- He also announced an agreement to increase Russian oil
exports to China by up to 5.5 million tonnes through rail transport.
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- According to earlier plans, the pipeline was expected
to bring 5.1 billion tonnes (720 million barrels) of crude to Chinese refineries
over the first 25 years of operation.
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- China became a net importer of oil in the mid-1990s and
has never turned back as its thirst for crude has skyrocketed with a growing
demand for cars.
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- According to official statistics, China imported 70 million
tonnes of oil in 2002 and will import up to 75 million tonnes this year,
or nearly 30 percent of its oil consumption. China is expected to import
up to 100 million tonnes by 2005.
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- Sino-Russian bilateral trade reached 12 billion dollars
last year, fueled partly by Chinese arms purchases, but remains a tiny
fraction of the two sides' overall trade with the outside world.
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- For instance, China's combined exports and imports last
year broke all records to top 620 billion dollars.
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- Kasyanov arrived in China this week to take part in a
meeting of prime ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,
which groups China, Russia and four Central Asian republics.
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