August 25:
Carrying 70,000 tons of gas condensate bound for China and accompanied by two nuclear powered icebreakers, the 114,564-ton “supertanker” SCF Baltica has become the largest vessel to successfully navigate Russia’s Northern Sea Route to East Asia. The tanker’s trip to China, along Russia’s Arctic coast took only 11 days, much shorter then the traditional route. Previously, petroleum products would be taken along the coast of Europe - almost twice the distance of the new route. But the trip remains treacherous and in places the tanker cleared the sea bottom with just a couple meters to spare, the Russia’s NTV and the Agence France Presse reports.
August 27:
Ukraine and China have signed an agreement on the joint development of the Black Sea oil and gas shelf, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports. The joint development agreement was signed in Kiev ahead of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's visit to China and is worth $200 million. "This is only the start of the implementation of our large-scale bilateral projects," said one parliamentarian in the pro-Russia Regions Party.
August 29:
Russian Premier Vladimir Putin has cut the ribbon on Russia’s 4,857 km Eastern Siberia- Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline system which extends to the border with China. Putin said the pipeline “cemented the Russia-China energy partnership.” “There is great work for Chinese friends in store,” Putin said. “They have to lay down 930 km of pipeline - all these are highly technological operations. But I'm quite sure that Russian oil will flow to China this year." The pipeline is designed to pump up to 1.6 million barrels (220,000 tons) of crude per day from Eastern Siberia to the Far East and then on to China and the Asia-Pacific region. Beijing had wanted the ESPO pipeline to go directly to China, and then on to other countries. But to avoid becoming hostage to single buyer Moscow extended the ESPO to its Pacific coast and built a spur to China, the Press Trust of India reports. Russia had been exporting crude to China via railway tankers.
August 30:
China and Russia will work together to build a commercial fast breeder nuclear reactor, the head of Rosatom, Russia’s Nuclear Energy State Corporation, Sergei Kiriyenko told Russia’s state news agency ITAR-TASS. Kiriyenko said that in July, China launched an experimental fast breeder reactor built with Russian equipment, scientific expertise and technical support. He said the parties also agreed “to build another two experimental fast breeder BN-800 reactors,” each with the capacity of 800 MW. “We’ve ended the exploratory design and now we’re starting the next stage. We hope that we’ll be able to sign the technical contract by November,” Kiriyenko said while on a trip to China. Putin also voiced support for Sino-Russian nuclear power cooperation: "Russia is China's main partner in peaceful uses of nuclear energy [and] deliveries of nuclear equipment run into billions of dollars," he said.
August 28:
China Oilfield Services, Beijing’s dominant offshore drilling services provider, is facing financial troubles due to the Gulf of Mexico's deepwater drilling moratorium and higher costs stemming from more stringent environmental regulations. The sister firm and key equipment supplier for national offshore oil producer CNOOC, has slashed this year's capital investment budget by 20% to 6.8 billion yuan and cut purchases of vessels and oilfield technology. The company owns 26 offshore rigs and six land rigs and charges fees for their use. Chairman Liu Jian said the temporary ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf after BP's oil spill meant idle drilling capacity would be deployed elsewhere. Liu also noted more stringent safety regulations were set to raise costs of drilling rigs and equipment in the Gulf, the South China Morning Post reports.
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