Title
The History and Development of the Sino-Russian Pipeline
Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
4-12-2010
Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Shelton Woods
Abstract
Recently, Russia and China has had numerous meetings signing deals on such sectors as telecommunications, transportation, security, and energy, measures which has been construed, among other things, as seeking to find a solution to offset U.S. influence in Central Asia and elsewhere. Energy is particularly important since, as of 2008, Russia is China’s fifth largest supplier of oil. With China’s growing economy, it has a need for high volumes of petroleum oil for its industries. Russia, on the other hand, has plenty of oil and natural gas in Siberia and its Far Eastern region. The East Siberian pipeline is strategically important to Russia, it being the most expensive venture so far in terms of energy development and will be the longest existing in the world. It is expected to lead to the development of the entire Russian Far East as well as the diversification of Russia oil and gas exports. After numerous delays, the project has finally begun construction, largely due to the recent economic crisis. This project will describe the factors that broke past deadlocks over the pipeline and led to the current Sino-Russian energy cooperation.