Cooperative efforts between China and Russia in the energy sector will reportedly be finalized soon, according to the China Business News.
Several Chinese and Russian experts expressed their optimism about the cooperative effort of the two nations on a natural gas supply line to China during a video conference hosted by RIA Novosti, one of the largest news agencies in Russia, on Tuesday, but the two sides are still in disagreement on details, such as lending and the scale of the natural gas supply.
Deputy prime minister of Russia Arkady Dvorkovich stated that the negotiations were reaching the tail-end and that both countries hope to complete them before Russian president Vladimir Putin's trip to Shanghai and Beijing in late May.
Sergey Pikin, director of Russia's Energy Development Fund said the agreements in electricity supply and oil supply between China and Russia show that the latter has placed greater focus on Asian market.
He added that China will soon become the world's largest economy and that China was willing to be supplied with more energy given the rapid growth in the sector in China.
According to the daily, pricing has been the main point of contention during negotiations as Russia says the cost for oil exploitation is high.
Alexy Belogoriev, deputy director-general of the Institute of Energy Strategy in Russia, on the other hand, held a more conservative view of the signing of the agreement, saying that the two nations might not be able to sign the accord in May, but may do so in the Fall instead.
Xia Yishan, senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, stated that his confidence was growing in terms of the prospects of the two sides' cooperation in energy, but the final say was with the leaders of China and Russia.
Xia also said that the negotiations, which had been ongoing for over two decades were complicated and that difficulties remained, and that a push was needed from Chinese and Russian leaders.
China's demand for energy is on the rise, with clean and safe energy being a top priority, given China's heavy smog problem, which makes the deal more likely, according to Xia
