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Russia, China work on gigantic oil, gas cooperation project

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-14 00:25

BEIJING - Russian Prime Minister Putin said here on Tuesday that Russia and China are working on a huge oil and gas cooperation project.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Putin said the two countries have signed a 20-year oil supply agreement and laid more than 2,000 kilometers of crude oil pipelines for this.

China is also laying on its side the corresponding pipeline, he said, adding the two counties are studying the feasibility of building a refinery in China.

Putin said as the world's nuclear power, Russia keeps an open mind towards cooperation in this field.

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"Russia and China are very active in the nuclear energy cooperation, "Putin said, citing the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant as a good example.

Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant, located in the Lianyungang city in eastern China's Jiangsu Province, is so far the largest nuclear power cooperative program between China and Russia.

Putin said Russia is willing to supply coal to China and the supply is increasing rapidly, noting China has good equipment and technology on coal processing.

As for natural gas cooperation, Putin said negotiations are underway and would certainly yield satisfactory results.

On the specific ways of gas supply and the pricing, he said those issues should be resolved at the enterprise level.

"The most important thing is that Russia and China have the need and capacity to enhance cooperation and the two economies are complementary to each other," Putin said, adding such cooperation would last for decades.

With regard to the problems and frictions in the bilateral trade, Putin said those small problems would not impact the general strategic cooperation between the two countries.

He took the "gray custom clearance" as an example. It was the name given to the illegal practice of getting items across the border without official customs approval.

The illegal practice would make the government unable to supervise domestic industries and lead to bankruptcies and unemployment, which might cause more troubles to the society against the backdrop of the financial crisis, he said.

Putin called upon the two countries to establish a set of unified rules, which would be obeyed by both sides, so as to achieve a just, sound and civilized mechanism of cooperation.