LATEST REPORT
Wednesday, June 7th, 2006
Content
- NE Asia Energy Cooperation
- World Bank Energy Week 2006
- PRC Ministry for Energy Security
- PRC Rural Energy
- PRC Renewable Energy
- Sino-Japanese Trade Relations
- DPRK Nuclear
- Russian Control of Resource Industries
1. NE Asia Energy Cooperation
The 2006 Working Group on Energy Cooperation in Northeast Asia (Dr. Zhang Jianping,” ENERGY COOPERATION IN NORTHEAST ASIA: STATUS, TRENDS AND PROSPECTS IN OIL AND GAS COOPERATION,” February 7, 2006) released this presentation from the February 5-7, 2006 meeting organized by NEAEF and in cooperation with JCPAEC and KEEI. The presentation by Zhang Jianping, Director of the Department of International Regional Cooperation at the Institute for International Economic Research, NRDC, discusses Northeast Asia’s oil and gas markets within an energy security framework. Zhang suggests that established institutions and detailed analysis of past, current, and future mechanisms for energy cooperation are key to regional security.
www.nautilus.org/aesnet/2006/JUN0706/ZHANG1.pdf
Read Zhang’s comments from the conference at:
www.nautilus.org/aesnet/2006/JUN0706/ZHANG2.pdf
2. World Bank Energy Week 2006
“The World Bank’s annual Energy Week is one of the foremost gatherings of policy makers and practitioners engaged on strategic issues of energy and development. The 2006 conference that took place on March 6-9, 2006, at the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington DC, built on the G8 Plan of Action adopted at Gleneagles that outlines the way ahead on clean energy, infrastructure, climate change and Africa. Themes taken up at Energy Week 2006 included: energy security; clean energy and low carbon energy development; governance and anti-corruption in the energy sector; and energy for growth and poverty reduction in Africa.”
3. PRC Ministry for Energy Security
China Daily (“NEW MINISTRY RECOMMENDED TO HANDLE ENERGY CHALLENGES,” June 2, 2006) reported that the [PRC] government’s think-tank and the World Bank have both recommended PRC set up a cabinet ministry to oversee energy security. The Development Research Centre of the State Council and the bank made the recommendation yesterday in a bid to improve energy co-ordination and supervision, and meet the challenges ahead. They listed PRC’s energy challenges as soaring consumption, the impact on the environment, an inefficient decision-making process, poor efficiency and growing exposure to the global market.
www.nautilus.org/aesnet/2006/JUN0706/CD_PRC.pdf
4. PRC Rural Energy
Xinhua News Agency (“CHINA INVESTS TO PROMOTE NEW TYPES OF ENERGY IN RURAL AREAS – WHITE PAPER,” June 5, 2006) reported that the PRC government spent 3.5bn yuan (around 438m US dollars) during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005) to popularize new types of energy in PRC’s rural areas, says a white paper entitled Environmental Protection in China (1996-2005) issued on Monday [5 June]. By the end of 2005, there were more than 17m households using methane, and the yearly output of methane reached 6.5bn cu.m., according to the white paper, released by the Information Office of the State Council of China.
www.nautilus.org/aesnet/2006/JUN0706/XNA_PRC.pdf
5. PRC Renewable Energy
U.S. News & World Report (Bay Fang, “CHINA’S RENEWAL,” June 12, 2006) reported that while PRC is most commonly known as a voracious consumer of energy with a spotty environmental record, the emerging industrial giant is quietly becoming a world leader in developing renewable energy sources and technology. With its energy needs growing exponentially and the price of oil near record highs, Beijing is using every possible means to eke out extra kilowatts–and this means not only cutting oil deals with rogue regimes and building nuclear reactors but also putting into place some of the most aggressive renewable-energy policies in the world.
www.nautilus.org/aesnet/2006/JUN0706/USNWR_PRC.pdf
6. Sino-Japanese Trade Relations
Xinhua News Agency (“CHINESE COMMERCE MINISTER CONCERNED ABOUT CHINA-JAPAN TRADE,” June 2, 2006) reported that trade between PRC and Japan is still growing but there has been a slowdown in growth, PRC’s commerce minister has told Japanese media in a recent interview on the sidelines of an energy forum in Tokyo. The Sino-Japanese relationship has not moved to a situation where it is “politically cold and economically cool” from the undertone of “politically cold yet economically hot,” Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said.
www.nautilus.org/aesnet/2006/JUN0706/XNA_PRC_Japan.pdf
7. DPRK Nuclear
Associated Press (P. Spielmann, “REACTOR PROJECT SHUTDOWN: US, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREAN AND EU FORMALLY KILL OFF NUCLEAR INCENTIVE PLAN FOR NORTH KOREA,” May 31, 2006) reported that a multinational project to build two tamperproof nuclear power plants for DPRK in exchange for U.N. inspections of the country’s atomic sites was formally killed off Wednesday by the United States, Japan, ROK and European Union. A short statement from the executive board of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) blamed Pyongyang’s “continued and repeated failure” to cooperate with the international effort to induce DPRK to give up its self-proclaimed nuclear weapons program.
www.nautilus.org/aesnet/2006/JUN0706/AP_KEDO.pdf
8. Russian Control of Resource Industries
The Houston Chronicle (E. Gismatullin, T. Prince, “RUSSIA WANTS TO ADD CONTROL IN OIL VENTURES; PUTIN ALSO SAYS NATION SHOULD HAVE MORE ACCESS IN EU,” June 1, 2006) reported that Russia warned Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell and BP they should cede some control of oil and natural gas projects as President Vladimir Putin tightens his grip on the industry, the world’s biggest. The government should have more control of Exxon Mobil and Shell projects in Russia’s Far East and in Total’s Kharyaga field in north European Russia, Anatoly Ledovskikh, head of Russia’s state agency for natural resource use, said Wednesday in Paris. He also said BP’s Russian venture needs to strike an agreement with state-run OAO Gazprom to revive a stalled Siberian gas project.
ww.nautilus.org/aesnet/2006/JUN0706/HC_RFE.pdf
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