$400 billion gas deal between Russia and China

[pscot]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/world/asia/china-russia-gas-deal.html?hp

BEIJING — China and Russia agreed to a major 30-year natural gas deal on Wednesday that would send gas from Siberia by pipeline to China, according to the China National Petroleum Corporation.

The announcement caps a decade-long negotiation and helps bring Russia and China closer than they have been in many years. The contract was driven to a conclusion by the presence of President Xi Jinping of China and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Shanghai for the last two days.

The notice posted on China National Petroleum’s website said that beginning in 2018, Russia would supply 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year to China. China will build the pipeline within its own borders, while Russia will be responsible for the development of the fields and pipeline construction in its territory, the notice said.

The notice said the Irkutsk Kovyktinskoye and Chayandinskoye gas fields in Russia would primarily supply the gas.

[stuartsdesk1]

1. Holy Climate Change ! This Is Good News !

The more natural gas Russia sends to China, the less coal China will burn.

That means less CO2 released per unit of energy produced (about 1/2 as much),
less carcinogenic chemicals released and breathed and fewer Chinese workers dying
awful deaths in coal mine accidents.

Thank you Vladimir Putin for clearing the air.

For a lighter take on climate change please see -

http://www.stuartsdesk.com

[NickB79]

3. My crystal ball says "unlikely"

China is focused on growth at all costs, and as such has adopted a strategy of using ALL energy sources at it's disposal.

So, most likely IMO is that they will KEEP burning coal (only in coal gasification supercenters instead of old-fashioned coal furnaces) and ADD Russian gas to the mix to simply increase the amount of energy available to their economy. And further out, they're looking at fracking their domestic natural gas resources much as the US is currently doing, even though that means soaring amounts of fugitive methane being released in the process.

The end result is that the air becomes cleaner, but carbon emissions soar out of control.

More on China's fracking future here: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/nov/27/china-planning-huge-fracking-industry

More info on their coal gasification supercenters here: http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140213/chinas-plan-clean-air-cities-will-doom-climate-scientists-say?page=show

Note that some are already running, and one is the size of LOS ANGELES!

[pscot]

4. Maybe at the margin

If we had a margin.

[Champion Jack]

2. Putin just stole a very big potential customer for American frackers

ha ha
too fuckin bad fracking gasholes