China-Russia Crude Oil Deal Largely Bypassing Tanker Market

Although most media reports were previously suggesting that major Sino-Russian energy negotiations were faltering, relations between the pair took a high-profile positive step last week as it was announced that OAO Rosneft will double its crude oil exports bound for China to over 620 kbpd while China National Petroleum Corporation will become a partner of Rosneft’s in upstream Arctic projects. The two countries also indicated that they plan to announce additional pipeline capacity between them later this year. This development is significant as China attempts to secure crude oil for the substantial amount of refinery capacity that is estimated to be brought online in the country in the near term. Download here