RUSSIA'S OIL AND GAS FOR NORTHEAST ASIAN MARKETS: MEANS AND WAYS VS REALITIES

摘要

Russia's aspirations to enhance energy ties with Asia date back to the 1990s. The Sakhalin offshore projects implemented in cooperation with international energy companies are principal achievements of that rather liberal energy policy. In the 2000s,the Asian vector in Russia's energy policy became more pronounced, but the government gathered substantial control over the oil and gas sectors via the state-owned companies. Recently, the importance of energy export diversification towards Asia is beingparticularly emphasised. This takes place in the context of sundry factors (such as progress in the EU energy markets regulatory reforms, imposed against Russia sectoral sanctions targeting vital forms of cooperation with the Western partners and dramatic fall in the global oil prices) starting to reveal their negative impact on Russia's energy sector and economy at large. While certain results in geographical re-orientation of Russian energy flows can already be observed, Russia's prospects for authentic diversification depend on its ability to compete in increasingly globalising and permanently evolving energy markets.