Page 8 - FSUOGM Week 06 2022

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Rosneft clinches deal for oil supplies

to China via Kazakhstan

RUSSIA RUSSIA’S Rosneft has struck a deal with China’s westwards.
CNPC on the delivery of 200,000 barrels per day Kazakhstan’s government expressed a desire
Rosneft now has a 7% (bpd) of oil to China via Kazakhstan, represent- to reverse this trend in 2019, in order to reduce
share of the Chinese ing an extension of an existing agreement due to the country's reliance on export routes via Rus-
gas market. expire at the end of 2023. sia, and on European customers such as Italy, the
Deliveries will be made via Kazakhstan’s Netherlands, Switzerland and France, where oil
Atasu-Alashankou pipeline to refineries in demand has stagnated. In contrast, China is the
north-west China. At present the pipeline only world’s fastest-growing oil market.
sends 20,000 bpd of Kazakh oil to China, even The government suggested that the flow
though it has a capacity of 400,000 bpd. And so it direction of the Kenkiyak-Atyrau pipeline could
has been repurposed for handling Russian tran- be reversed to allow for more oil from the coun-
sit volumes. try’s west to be sent to China. But there has so
Rosneft now has a 7% share of the Chinese far been only limited progress in implementing
oil market, but the bulk of its deliveries to the this plan.
country are made via the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Rosneft extended the deal with CNPC dur-
Ocean (ESPO) pipeline. There have been issues ing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to
with capacity constraints at ESPO in recent years, Beijing for the Winter Olympics, where he met
however, meaning that Rosneft has resorted to with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. China and
sending more oil via Kazakhstan. Russia signed several other energy deals, and
Kazakhstan used to send much more of its stressed the need for closer political ties amid
oil to China – in 2012 shipments amounted to heightened tensions between both countries
nearly 240,000 bpd. But many of the fields that and the West. The highlight was a new gas supply
exported their production eastwards are now deal reached between CNPC and Russia’s Gaz-
mature, whereas the country’s main growth prom, which will underpin the development of
projects such as Tengiz, Karachaganak and a new export route for Russian gas to China in
Kashagan are also geared to sending their oil the Far East. ™

Turkmenistan, China agree to

build fourth gas pipe

TURKMENISTAN THE leaders of Turkmenistan and China, Gur- China.
banguly Berdimuhamedov and Xi Jinping, at The Turkmen leader announced the need for
The two sides are talks in Beijing agreed to build a fourth gas pipe- specialists from the two countries to hold talks
understood to have line line to transit Turkmen gas to China and on the construction of gas desulfurisation plants,
agree on adding a develop Turkmenistan’s Galkynysh gas field with compressor stations and a gas pipeline from the
fourth string to the Chinese investment, the State News Agency of Galkynysh field to the border of Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan-China Turkmenistan reported on February 6. with a “neighbouring state”.
pipeline. The cash injection from Beijing for the He did not say whether he was referring to
Galkynysh field is likely to be given to Chinese Afghanistan, now under the control of the Tali-
contractors. ban, or Tajikistan, leading to Uzbekistan.
“During the talks, the parties agreed on The three lines (A, B and C) of the Turk-
the project for the construction of the fourth menistan-China gas pipeline, commissioned in
branch of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline, December 2009, supply about 40bn cubic metres
instructing the Turkmen-Chinese and Chi- of gas per year. The issue of building the fourth
nese-Turkmen cooperation committees to carry line (D) of this gas pipeline has been discussed
out work in this order,” the report said. for a number of years. Its capacity has been sug-
The Turkmen leader confirmed the readiness gested at 30bn cubic metres of gas per year.
of Turkmenistan for a substantive discussion on In 2021, Turkmenistan supplied about 34bn
increasing the volume of natural gas supplies to cubic metres of gas to China. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 06 09•February•2022