Gazprom, YUKOS consider energy exports to China

Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao signed a joint declaration on energy cooperation. On the same day, YUKOS CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and President of the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) Ma Futsay signed a general agreement on supplying China with Russian oil. They also agreed on increasing oil railroad exports to China to 6m tons from 2003 through 2006, YUKOS Press Secretary Alexander Shadrin reported.

Additionally, on May 27, the CNPC President met with Gazprom's head Alexey Miller. According to the Gazprom press service, the parties discussed collaboration within the Zapad-Vostok (West-East) project, involving the development of the Tarim oil and gas field in Western China, laying and operating a gas pipeline, as well as gas supplies to Western China. The gas pipeline will be about 4,000 km long. Annual supplies of gas will reach 12 billion cubic meters. Among other participants in the project are Shell and Exxon/Mobil.

Moreover, the CNPC is likely to launch another joint project with the Russian gas giant, envisaging the transporting of gas through China to South Korea, the Kommersant newspaper reported.

© &to=http://www.rbc.com' target=_blank>RBC

&to=http://www.gazprom.ru' target=_blank>GAZPROM

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