Russia’s top oil producer, state-controlled Rosneft, has signed a deal to supply additional pipeline volumes of crude to China via Kazakhstan during Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing earlier this week, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said on Thursday.
“Rosneft also signed an agreement with Chinese partners on an additional supply of 2.5 million tonnes of oil via Kazakhstan,” Russian news agency Interfax quoted Tsivilev as saying in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
Last year, the crude flows from Russia to China via Kazakhstan stood at 10.2 million tons, equal to about 204,000 barrels per day (bpd).
At the end of 2024, Putin said during a state visit to Astana that Russia and Kazakhstan were discussing increasing Russian oil and gas flows to China via Kazakhstan.
“We have discussed the possibility of creating new routes for pumping our products – petroleum and gas alike – to third countries, primarily the People’s Republic of China, through the territory of Kazakhstan among other optional routes,” Putin said at the time, as carried in the English translation of the Kremlin’s transcript of the briefing.
“These are very lucrative, exciting, and promising routes and projects. Without a doubt, they will help stabilise the global economy, primarily, in the Asia-Pacific region, and we will thus gain an extra opportunity to engage in market operations,” Putin was quoted as saying.
This week, during Putin’s visit to China for a summit of Eurasian leaders, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom signed an agreement with China’s state energy firm CNPC to build a second huge natural gas pipeline from Russia to China, the Power of Siberia 2.
Despite the lack of details on timelines, financing, and the price of supply of the new massive project, Russia and China used this week’s summit to manifest closer ties in defiance of the U.S., pledging increased cooperation and signing about two dozen agreements, including in the energy sector.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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