Last month, CIC posted a return of 11.7 percent on its overseas investment in 2010.

Russia may turn off oil pipeline to China over pricing disputes

俄羅斯石油輸送公司或終止向中國出口原油

Russian oil pipeline company Transneft is considering halting oil shipments to China and repaying US$10 billion of loans to China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), citing difficulty reaching an agreement on oil pricing issues, Caijing.com reported Tuesday, citing Russian media.

In February 2009, CNPC signed an agreement with Russian oil companies Rosneft and Transneft to lend the firms US$25 billion to build an East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline. In return, the Russian companies would supply CNPC with 300 million tons of crude oil over 20 years.

The ESPO pipeline began operating in January. But according to the Russian media, the Chinese have been requiring lower and lower oil prices and paying far less than the contract price to the Russian companies. As a result, Transneft has prepared to turn off the oil pipeline and stop shipping crude to China.

"It makes no difference to us whether we sell the oil to European or Asian countries," Caixin.com quoted a person familiar with the China-Russia oil venture as saying.

"Even if Russian oil pipeline companies file an arbitration claim, the Chinese side could still choose not to act as the court rules and continue to default on payments. In the worst case scenario, Russia could stop exporting oil to China sometime in March 2012," the source added.

由于一直難于就石油輸送定價費用問題達成協議，俄羅斯石油輸送公司可能將提前償還中國的100多億美元貸款，財經網周二報道，引用俄媒體消息。

2009年俄石油公司和石油運輸公司與中石油集團簽署協議，俄在未來20年里通過東西伯利亞-太平洋管線向中國出口3億噸石油，中國則向兩公司提供20年的250億美元貸款。

俄羅斯今年1月1日開始向中國出口石油，但由于在價格方面存在分歧，中方一直拖欠相關款項。隨著中國拖欠的款項越來越多，俄羅斯石油運輸公司已經準備“關閉石油管道”，停止向中國輸送石油。

“對于我們來說，石油賣給歐洲或者賣給東方沒什么不同。”一位熟悉俄中石油合作進程的消息人士稱。

“如果俄羅斯石油運輸公司向仲裁法庭提出申訴，中國可能同樣不會履行法庭的決定，像現在一樣不支付石油費用。如果按照最壞方案發展，那到2012年3月的某個時候對中國的石油出口可能會被終止。”該人士稱。