Can Asia count on reliable Russian oil exports?

The energy outlook for Asia and the Pacific will unfold a bit further when Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov arrives in Beijing later this month on a scheduled visit.

He will do so amid signs that Moscow is seeking to enhance its power in Asia by offering to meet an increasingly large portion of the region’s rapidly growing demand for energy.

However, it is China that seems most likely to become the main partner and beneficiary of Russia’s Asia-Pacific strategy. This will cause consternation in Japan just when its new leader, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is trying to reassert Japanese influence in the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin pointedly told a group of Western journalists and academics in September that relations with China were at their best ever.

He also said that conditions were now in place for keeping them at this level for a long time. He added that Russia plans a massive increase in its energy exports to Asia by selling 30 per cent of its oil and gas to the region in 10 to 15 years, compared with 3 per cent today.

Is this an attempt by Moscow to use Asia as a bargaining chip in its dispute with Europe over the terms on which Russia supplies vast quantities of gas to the continent and gains access to its energy industry?

But Mr Putin himself noted that economic activity was moving from the Atlantic to the Pacific and that Russia, which has about two-thirds of its territory in Asia, wanted to take advantage of this.

Several recent developments suggest that Russia is serious about strengthening ties with Asia, chiefly with China.

Brunei Times