China and Russia Discuss High-Level Energy Cooperation

China and Russia have been discussing a high-level energy partnership that would benefit both countries, China’s Xinhua agency reported, citing a statement by Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang following a meeting with Russian Deputy PM Alexander Novak.

The two co-chaired the 21^st meeting of the China-Russia Energy Cooperation Committee, the report noted.

Among the other comments made by Ding was a proposal to deepen bilateral ties across the energy industry’s segments and optimize the policies relevant to energy cooperation to facilitate new energy projects.

China has become Russia’s biggest energy client following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The country took in 15.2 billion cubic meters of Russian gas via the Power of Siberia pipeline in the first half of the year, according to Bloomberg. Europe, by the way, was the second-biggest buyer of Russian gas, taking in 14.6 billion cubic meters in the first six months of the year.

Russia also became China’s largest oil supplier after the 2022 Ukraine invasion, with the total last year rising 24% to reach 107.02 million tons. This represented 19% of China’s total oil imports, with Saudi Arabia slipping to second place, accounting for 15% of the total import volume.

In addition to pledges to boost cooperation in the oil and gas space, Russia and China have also recently discussed boosting Russian electricity exports to its southern neighbor. Earlier this decade, Russia raised its electricity exports to China to help it get over a power crunch. In October 2021, for example, Russia doubled its electricity exports to China as Asia’s largest economy was grappling with power shortages that led to power rationing.

However, in August last year, Russia reduced electricity exports to China along the Amur-Heihe power line to 100-200 MW from 600 MW due to a shortage in the energy system of Russia’s Far East. Per reports on the latest discussions, any increase in electricity exports would take into account Far East demand trends.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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