According to the minister, the sides agreed to draft new bilateral documents on all issues on the session's agenda - co-operation in the oil and gas sphere, power engineering and energy machine building.
"Our Chinese colleagues and we proceed from the assumption that co-operation in the gas sphere and crude oil deliveries are long-term spheres of interaction," he said. "These are strategic spheres and hence the creation of legislation for them is a vital condition."
Khristenko explained that the adoption of decisions on individual oil and gas projects depends on the results of discussions of the national energy strategy in China. "It is extremely important for us to have official information about the outlooks and guidelines of the Chinese oil and gas market," said the minister. "This is why we asked our Chinese colleagues to inform us about their energy strategy, so that the Russian government and companies could be given the direction in this interaction. We have provided our Energy Strategy until 2020 to China," the minister added.
Viktor Khristenko said that the session also discussed progress of the construction of the Russia-China oil pipeline. In particular, Russia informed China that the government would be able to discuss the project only after it gets the results of the ecological and technical inspection of the project, which can take up to six months. "We will be able to speed up the construction only after the government discusses the issue," said the minister.
"As for the route of the pipeline across Russia, this is a purely Russian affair," he said. The pipeline can go to Nakhodka on the Pacific coast (for the delivery of Siberian oil to Japan, South Korea and possibly the US) or to Daqing in China. The choice depends on many factors, such as the resources of raw materials in the regions of potential production, domestic consumption, world prices of oil, the consumption outlook in importing countries, Russia's strategic interests, and the interest and stand of potential foreign partners.
The Russian minister of industry and energy is confident that the volume of crude oil deliveries to China by railway would increase. "We expect to deliver 6.5 million tons of crude oil to China by year-end, 10 million tons in 2005 and 15 million tons in 2006," he said.
According to Khristenko, Russian oil deliveries to China seriously influence mutual trade, which can reach $20 billion this year. He stressed that oil suppliers are not specified in the protocol signed on the results of the session. "This is an issue not for the Russian government but for individual companies," he said. "Our task is to create conditions for the implementation of plans." As of now, Yukos provides oil to China by railway.
The minister said about co-operation in power engineering that border trade in electricity should be stepped up, in particular with the northeastern provinces of China. "The 2003 figures - 160 million kWh - are only the beginning and can be increased."
The 6th session of the Russia-China subcommission on energy co-operation was held in Beijing on August 25 to discuss preparations for the regular meetings of the heads of government of the two countries. Meetings of working groups of oil, gas and electricity, as well as a meeting of Russia's Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko and Ma Kai, chairman of the Chinese State Development and Reform Committee, were held within the framework of the session. A joint protocol was signed on the results of the session.
