Rosneft to provide additional 9 million tons of oil to China
February 25, 2013, 1:37 pm

China has repeatedly claimed it wants more Russian oil [Xinhua]

According to Dvorkovich this will be enough to supply the Tianjin oil refinery, a joint project in northern China.

“So far, specific parameters have not been defined, but in any case deliveries should be sufficient to implement the Tianjin refinery project. This is about 9 million tons of oil and the Chinese side is interested in an even larger increase in deliveries,” Dvorkovich said after a meeting of the Russian-Chinese commission for energy cooperation in Beijing.

Specific contract agreements are to be signed in the next few months.

During the visit of Rosneft’s President Igor Sechin to China, the two sides agreed on the increase of Russian oil supplies to China.

Within the framework of a 2010 agreement on the Vostok Petrochemicals joint venture (49 per cent Rosneft, 51 per cent CNPC), the sides agreed on the construction of an oil refinery at Tianjin in China.

The refinery is planning to process over 13 million tons (95 mln barrels) of oil, of which 9 million tons will be from Russia.

Crude oil will be delivered by tankers to the port of Tianjin and from there via a 42 km pipeline to the refinery – light product yield will be in excess of 80 per cent.

Target markets for this joint venture are Northern China and regions of the country’s Central Plateau, including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei province, Changzhi, Jinan and Shandong province, as well as the Eastern Chinese seaboard.

Sechin visited China last week to discuss increasing deliveries from the current level of 15 million tons per year after China has repeatedly claimed it wants more Russian oil.

Rosneft has also started talks with potential Chinese partners about their participation in the development of the Russian Arctic shelf.

Agencies with additional reporting from Daria Chernyshova in Moscow