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Rosneft to triple oil supplies to China

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R, back) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping (L, back) applaud while Rosneft President and Chairman of the Management Board Igor Sechin (R, front) exchanges documents with President of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Vice Chairman and President of PetroChina Zhou Jiping during a signing ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow March 22, 2013. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R, back) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping (L, back) applaud while Rosneft President and Chairman of the Management Board Igor Sechin (R, front) exchanges documents with President of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Vice Chairman and President of PetroChina Zhou Jiping during a signing ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow March 22, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin

MOSCOW | Fri Mar 22, 2013 3:39pm EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's top oil producer Rosneft will, over time, more than triple total volumes of oil supplies to China, making the country Russia's biggest oil consumer, Rosneft head Igor Sechin said on Friday.

Russia will increase oil supplies by 31 million tonnes a year, and will get a $2 billion 25-year loan.

"Today we signed... an agreement on principles of crude oil supplies, which foresees (a) gradual increase in ... supplies starting from 800,000 tonnes this year in addition to those contracts and obligations that we signed in 2009," Sechin told reporters.

This will bring total Rosneft supplies to China to 45-50 million tonnes a year, though the time horizon remained unclear.

Rosneft currently supplies China with 15 million tonnes of oil a year (300,000 barrels per day) via the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline. Some volumes are also shipped via Pacific port of Kozmino.

Sechin also said that Rosneft and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) agreed to jointly develop three offshore blocks in the Barents Sea and 8 onshore deposits in East Siberia.

Earlier on Friday, Sechin said that the goal of increasing oil supplies to China to 50 million tonnes a year (1 million barrels per day) was achievable.

(Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Maya Dyakina and Jane Merriman)
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Comments (1)
MikeBarnett wrote:
The article does not point out the 2 oil and 1 gas pipelines from Siberia into Xinjiang Province through the Russian border with China between Mongolia and Kazakhstan. The authors only point out the 1 oil and 1 gas pipelines into Heilongjiang Province. However, the world’s biggest oil and gas station sits next door to the world’s biggest automobile market, so both countries will benefit. China is becoming the dominant super power with manufacturing and trade, and Russia is reemerging as a world power with energy and arms sales.

Also, both countries will share a growing market for food with China’s massive irrigation project and Russia’s development of Siberia. Global warming is making the US, Mexico, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Australia into polluted deserts. Russian oil can transport Russian and Chinese food to feed much of the world in the future, and both nations can gain influence with those countries that want to eat.

Mar 22, 2013 5:57pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
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