Xu Wei, Zheng Xin
On November 29, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed China’s readiness to establish an even closer energy partnership with Russia to promote the development of clean energy, ensure global energy security and preserve the stability of industry and supply chains.
Xi Jinping made this statement in a congratulatory message to the participants of the fourth Chinese-Russian Energy Business Forum. Russian President Vladimir Putin also sent a congratulatory message to the forum participants.
The Chinese leader stressed that energy cooperation between the two countries is the cornerstone of bilateral pragmatic cooperation and a positive force in maintaining global energy security.
Oil and gas trade between Russia and China will gradually grow.
In the face of external risks and challenges, China and Russia have improved communication and coordination and advanced major cooperation programs that have demonstrated their high resilience and broad prospects for Sino-Russian relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction entering a new era, he said. He also called on both sides to make a new contribution to the long-term, healthy and sustainable development of the international energy market.
Russia continued to be the largest source of energy imports for China in 2021. Energy imports from Russia last year reached 334.29 billion yuan (2.99 trillion rubles), an increase of 47.4 percent year-on-year, which is 65.3 percent of the total value of China’s imports from Russia last year, according to the General Customs Administration.
Faced with a number of risks and challenges, companies from China and Russia have achieved new successes in energy cooperation, despite the fact that geopolitical tensions have negatively affected the balance of global energy supply and demand, said Dai Houliang, chairman of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) during the forum. According to him, in the first three quarters of this year, bilateral trade between China and Russia exceeded $ 136 billion, and their energy trade reached almost $ 60 billion, which is more than 40 percent of the total.
In the first nine months of this year, imports of crude oil from Russia to China increased by 8.8 percent, natural gas – by 49 percent, coal – by 12 percent. Major energy cooperation projects are being successfully implemented, including the eastern route of the Sino-Russian gas pipeline, as well as the Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 2 projects, Dai said. He suggested expanding energy cooperation in the coming years to further guarantee reliable oil and gas supplies, and actively explore opportunities in the field of environmentally friendly and low-carbon energy.
A source: https://infobrics.org/post/37425/
