Energy cooperation stimulates new vigor
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-04-29 11:01

Energy cooperation has become a new driving force behind the economic and trade exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region, as China and neighboring nations have had more cooperation in energy.

Many delegates attending the 60th session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) that wrapped up here Wednesday have demonstrated a strong interest in expanding energy cooperation with China.

Yuri Fedotov, deputy foreign minister of Russia, said that Russia gives priority to developing cooperation with China in energy and other areas in Russia's external works.

As Russia and China have had negotiations on the construction of an oil pipeline between the two countries, it would surely bring a promising future for the bilateral cooperation in energy fields, he said.

China and Russia signed an agreement in 2001 on jointly building the oil pipeline between Angarsk and Daqing, but the final route of the pipeline is yet to be decided. This pipeline is scheduled to pump oil from Russia's Siberia and the Far East.

Before the pipeline plan is set, Russia has decided to export its oil to China by train. According to an agreement signed March, the Russian Yukos Company plans to supply 6.4 million tons of crude oil to China, and the amount will reach to 8.5 million in 2005, and 15 million in 2006.

Kasymzhomart Kemelevich Tokayev, foreign minister of Kazakhstan, said Kazakhstan and China share great potential in energy cooperation, and Kazakhstan has agreed to build a pipeline from Atasu in Kazakhstan to Alataw Pass at the border between the two countries. The preparatory works on investment and techniques for this project are underway at present.

China and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on building a 3,000-kilometer-long pipeline between the two countries in 1997. The western route of the pipeline has been put into use with a length of 448 kilometers, and the eastern route of the pipeline from Atasu to Dushanzi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is expected to begin its construction this year.

In addition, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda said in a meeting with Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong here this week that Indonesia is willing to expand cooperation with China in energy fields.

According to the agreement signed by the two countries, Indonesia will transport liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China from 2007, with an annual supply of 2.6 million tons of LNG.

Xia Yishan, a senior research fellow with the China Institute of International Studies, said China, Russia and Kazakhstan complement each other in oil and gas, and this provided the basis for the energy cooperation between China and the two countries.

Meanwhile, the sound political ties between the three countries also provided beneficial conditions for the energy cooperation, Xia said.

China became an oil net importer in 1993, and was the second largest oil importer in the world last year after the United States, with the imported crude oil exceeding 91 million tons. Experts predict that China will consume about 270 million tons of crude oil this year, with the net imports of over 100 million tons.

Countries in this region have welcomed the cooperation in energy.

Clive Brown, minister for State Development of Government of Western Australia, said China's energy demand has brought new business opportunities to Australia as his state has rich natural gas reserves.

The Western Australia state has the capacity to supply natural gas to China for 250 years if calculated at the amount China transferred from its west to the east, Brown said.

Pranesh Chandra Saha, officer-in-charge of the Environment and Sustainable Development Division of the ESCAP, said there is a great potential in energy cooperation between China and its neighboring countries. The Asian-Pacific countries should integrate their energy resources and set up a network of supply and demand.

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