Oil: China and Russia

choi

The main article (1), as well as the side bar (2), is under the title of "Power Grab: China’s quest for energy"

(1) Andrew Higgins, China Finds Promise and Setbacks in Pursuit of Russian Energy. Washington Post, Dec 29, 2011.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wo ... QA1H9hzO_story.html

Quote:

"China desperately needs what Russia has in abundance — oil, natural gas, coal, mighty rivers for hydropower, and nuclear know-how. And Russia, seeking to position itself as an 'energy superpower,' has increasingly looked to China to help boost its economic and political clout.

"Russia’s proven oil reserves are five times as big as those of China, which last year consumed three times as much petroleum as its northern neighbor. Russia also has the world’s biggest supplies of natural gas, a resource that until recently China largely neglected but that is now at the center of its energy policy. China plans to double gas use over the next five years

"But it was a private Russian oil company, Yukos, that pioneered oil deliveries to China — by rail — and led an early push for a pipeline. Yukos’s China efforts fizzled after the 2003 arrest of its boss, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who — convicted of corruption and tax evasion — has since been in jail.

"When Russian oil finally started flowing to China in January, both countries trumpeted a new era of cooperation — and then promptly started feuding over who owed what. Each month since has brought more squabbles over payments, though Transneft says the Chinese are now paying much closer to the agreed price.

(2) Andrew Higgins, Jailed Russian Billionaire Pioneered Oil Deals With China. Washington Post, Dec 29, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wo ... P_story.html?sub=AR
("The former tycoon [Mikhail Khodorkovsky] sent a written reply to questions from his current place of detention, in northern Russia. He had previously been held in the Siberian region of Chita, spending time in a labor camp just 25 miles from China")