From Asia Times, two articles about competition between China and Japan over a Russian oil pipeline. In “China beats Japan in Russian pipeline race,” John Helmer writes:
Despite pressure from the government and oil importers in Tokyo for priority in Russian crude deliveries to Japan, Russia’s new eastern oil pipeline will first deliver crude oil to China, and later to Japan, a senior executive of Transneft, the state pipeline agency, told Asia Times Online. But the oil to China will be transported by rail, not by a special China spur pipeline.
And from “Russia walks thin line between Japan and China“:
The Kremlin’s decision to approve the East Siberia-Pacific oil pipeline and pump its Siberian crude toward Japan has come as a blow to China’s hopes of securing its own slice of Russia’s hydrocarbon riches. And Moscow’s energy overtures toward Beijing as a consolation prize are not much by which to set store.
