China’s Oil and Gas Policy Towards Russia
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Geopolitics of Energy |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Political sciences |
| Keywords | China´s energy policy; Strategic Approach to energy security; resource mercantilism; ESPO pipeline; Sino-Russian gas deal; Power of Siberia. |
| Description | Using the existing theoretical discussion as a starting point, the aim of this article is to interrogate critically the strategic character of China’s energy policy towards Russia. Having carefully examined the premises of the “Strategic Approach” to energy security, the article proceeds to define specific research questions, which are applied to China’s oil and gas policy towards Russia from 2003 to 2014. As we show in the individual sections of the article, the premises of the Strategic Approach are generally valid for the case of China´s oil policy. Beijing´s strong commitment to diversify maritime oil deliveries by all alternatives available plays a major role. In the case of China´s gas policy towards Russia, however, Beijing has focused on economic terms. One possible explanation stems from alternative supplies Beijing has managed to secure from neighboring countries. The May 2014 Sino-Russian gas deal points both to China as a tough negotiator finding itself in a slightly better position, and to the rising significance Russian gas gains in the Chinese market after 2020. |
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