On December 13-15, within the framework of the Agreement for Strategic Cooperation between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Sanya (PRC) hosted the 5th meeting of the Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) between Gazprom and CNPC.

Moderating the meeting were the JCC Co-Chairmen – Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Zhou Jiping, Vice President of CNPC. The JCC meeting was preceded by a meeting of the Joint Working Group between Gazprom and CNPC.

The JCC meeting approved the work done to promote joint businesses outlined in the Agreement and the Protocol of the 4th JCC meeting.

The parties examined various aspects in relation to the Project for natural gas supply from Russia to China via the priority Western route as well as issues surrounding supply options via the Eastern route in accordance with the Development Program for an integrated gas production, transportation and supply system in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, taking into account potential gas exports to Asia Pacific. The participants underlined that completing the commercial talks and signing an Intergovernmental Natural Gas Supply Agreement between Russia and China was of crucial significance for organizing natural gas exports from Russia to China.

The meeting also reviewed the cooperation progress in underground gas storage & upstream facility engineering in the PRC as well as the topical issues of sci-tech cooperation, interaction in personnel training & qualification upgrading, industrial safety, trading in oil and refining products.

The 6th JCC meeting is planned to be held in the summer of 2007 in Russia.

Reference:

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is China’s largest 100%-state owned oil and gas business and a leading integrated oil and gas producing company in the world.

Incorporated in 1998 on the platform of the Oil Industry Ministry of the People’s Republic of China, CNPC is comprised today of companies engaged in oil & gas exploration, development, production, transmission, storage as well as refining, petrochemicals and research. CNPC is the largest crude oil producer & supplier and retains a dominating position in terms of oil & gas production, processing and marketing in China. CNPC and its subsidiaries supply 79% of the domestic oil market, control 95% and 40% of China’s natural gas and petroleum markets, respectively, and are involved in 25 investment projects worldwide.

Gazprom and CNPC sealed an Agreement for Strategic Cooperation on October 14, 2004 in Beijing within the official visit of the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin to the PRC. The Agreement covers a wide spectrum of joint businesses including Gazprom’s potential natural gas deliveries from Russia to China. To steer the Agreement implementation, the parties set up a Joint Coordinating Committee. The Committee resolved to set up a Joint Working Group as well as a variety of Working Groups for major joint businesses. The 3rd and 4th meetings of the Joint Working Group and Joint Coordinating Committee took place in December 2005 (China) and July 2006 (Saint-Petersburg), respectively.

On March 21-22, 2006, within the official visit of the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin to the PRC, Gazprom and CNPC inked a Protocol on Natural Gas Supply from Russia to the PRC, fixing the major accords on the gas supply timing, amount and routes (Eastern and Western), and gas pricing formula principles.