China is expected to more than double its crude oil imports from
Russia by 2006 through a rail link.
China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation's largest oil
producer, has primarily agreed to buy 10 million tons of oil
annually from OAO Yukos Oil Co - Russia's largest oil company - for
six or seven years, said sources close to the deal.
The oil will be transported via the existing railway linking the
Russian border town of Zabaikalsk and Manzhouli on the Chinese
border.
CNPC President Ma Fucai and visiting Yukos Senior Vice-President
Alexander Temerko signed the deal on Tuesday afternoon, sources
said.
"Yukos has recently proposed to CNPC to increase its oil
shipment to CNPC. The companies have basically agreed the trading
terms, including the prices," said the source.
The price of oil delivered by the railway is more expensive than
the price of oil agreed upon for the Sino-Russia trunkline, the
source added.
CNPC signed a contract last March with Yukos to buy a total of 6
million tons of crude by rail between 2003 and 2006.
China imported 5.25 million tons of Russian oil last year,
rising 73 percent year-on-year. Nearly 4 million tons of the crude
imports were delivered on the Zabaikalsk to Manzhouli Railway and
more than 1.6 million through another railway starting from
Erlianhaote in Inner Mongolia. The balance came from the shipments
by sea.
Analysts said the deal is part of Yukos's efforts to increase
its oil exports to China as it sees no breakthroughs in sight to
the currently deadlock over the US$2.5 billion proposed Sino-Russia
oil trunk line.
China and Russia signed a framework agreement in March to build
an oil pipeline running from Angarsk in East Siberia to Daqing in
northeast China.
The trunkline would allow China to ship 700 million tons of
Russia's crude through the pipeline to China over the next 25
years.
The deal, worth US$150 billion in total, would be the
largest-ever bilateral trade between the two countries.
The Kremlin became ambiguous over the project after Japan
offered a rival pipeline that will bypass China and stretch to
Russia's Far East port of Nakhodka.
The Russian side later claimed that it needs more time to
consider where the pipeline should be laid toward, although it did
promise to increase the oil supply to China.
"One of the signals we see behind the increased oil
transportation by rail is that the oil pipeline project may be
further delayed," said Li Fuchuan, a Russian oil expert with the
China Academy of Social Sciences.
"Russia is meeting its commitment to oil exports to China
anyway, whether it is coming by a railway or via a trunkline," said
Li.
But Li also said it may become even more difficult for Japan's
proposal, which demands much more oil than the Chinese pipeline, to
be realized in the short term.
Russia's state-owned railway company said last month it would
increase its transportation capacity to ship 12 million tons from
Yukos to China by 2006.
With the economy booming, China's oil imports reached an
all-time high of 91 million tons last year, a jump of 31 percent
year-on-year.
About half of this oil came from the Middle East.
To reduce its heavy reliance on the unsettled Middle East, China
has recently started to increase imports from such areas as Russia,
Southeast Asia, South America and Africa.
During President Hu Jintao's visit to Gabon on Monday, China
signed an oil import contract with Gabon, the African country's
first crude export deal to China.
(China Daily February 5, 2004)