China Competes with Japan for Overseas Petroleum Development

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, July 25, 2003

China Competes with Japan for Overseas Petroleum Development

According to reports by Nikkei Net, related Japanese media hold that nowadays an increasing competition has been witnessed between China and Japan in developing petroleum abroad.

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According to reports by Nikkei Net, related Japanese media hold that nowadays an increasing competition has been witnessed between China and Japan in developing petroleum abroad.

Led by Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)��the negotiations with Iran about oilfield tapping have come to a deadlock. Japan and Iran didn't reach any agreement on conditions of tapping for oilfields. Meanwhile, the United States put pressure on Japan, alleging that Iran develops nuclear weapons, forcing Japan to break off the negotiations. As a result, Japan lost the initiative in June this year. Feeling greatly anxious about the break-off, the Iranian side therefore dropped a hint that they would negotiate with other countries beside Japan so as to add more weight on the negotiation.

The Japanese government pays particular attention to actions taken by China. Related sides said that in the latter half of 1990s China has begun to strengthen its ties with Iran. Personages of an international petroleum company also confirmed that China showed an active attitude towards striving for the right to develop Iranian oilfields.

In 2001 China and Russia reached an agreement on the construction of the oil pipeline transmitting crude oil from east Siberia to Chinese Daqing. Later at the Sino-Russian summit conference held in December last year another agreement was reached that China will import 20 million tons of crude oil from Russia each year starting from 2005.

However, at the Japanese-Russian summit conference held in last January Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed the plan to build a pacific pipeline linking up east Siberia and Nakhodka, which the Russian side promised to take into consideration.

Besides, early this month the Japanese delegation headed by Director-General of Agency of Natural Resources and Energy held talks with Russian Minister of Energy. Sources say that Japan is committed to tapping for the eastern Siberian oilfield program, using the low-interest loans from Japan Bank for International Cooperation. METI officials also have great confidence in realizing the aforementioned pacific pipeline plan.

Japan actually lost the right of Saudi Arabian oil exploitation in 2000 and has been seeking eagerly for new channels of importing crude oil from the international market. Similarly China is devoted to obtaining the right of oil exploitation abroad under the circumstances of a rapid economic development. As a matter of fact, China has already got it in the Middle East, South America and other regions.

Some Japanese analysts believe that China, getting some tip-off from the Gulf War, has begun to import crude oil in quantity, while Japan under the precondition to guarantee its own crude oil supply should provide cooperation for China which is short of oil reserve. If so, Japan's oil policy will enter a new period --- the coexistence of cooperation and competition with China.

By PD Online Staff Zhu Lizhen

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