Russia-China Pipeline becomes operational; Russia and Vietnam agreed to extend the terms of their joint venture on oil and gas exploration ‘Vietsovpetro’ for another 20 years
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  • As a growing sign of increased Russia-China cooperation in the energy sector, Russia has started delivering oil to China through the brand new East Siberian Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline. This is a significant milestone since all the pipelines of Russia were till now concentrated towards Europe. The pipeline stretches for 2700 kms and when construction is finished by 2013, it will be the world’s longest pipeline network covering roughly 4000 kms. Being constructed at an expenditure of 25 billion US$, the project is by far the single largest infrastructure initiative ever undertaken in Russia.1

    However, Russia and Vietnam have agreed to extend the terms of their joint venture on oil and gas exploration ‘Vietsovpetro’ for another 20 years. As per the new terms and conditions, state owned Petro-Vietnam will raise its stake to 51 percent while Russian state owned oil firm Zarubezhneft will own the remaining 49 percent. Geographical exploration and extraction of crude oil and gas in Vietnamese territory remain the principal objective of the joint venture which was established in the year 1981. At present, Vietsovpetro's output represents about 40 percent of Vietnam's annual crude oil production.2

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