Amit's Blog

  Part 4 - The Russian Angle Originally published at  http://www.uniindia.com/china-s-energy-security-needs-the-russian-angle/business-economy/news/2254439.html on Dec 5, 2020 China and Russia have had a blow hot blow cold political relationship. Up until the early seventies China and Russia were cold war allies and then it switched the other way. China and The United States became trading partners and the partnership grew from strength to strength. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union collapsed and by the year 2000 Russia was in the doldrums facing severe erosion in strength. Since then Russia has turned around and has regained strength. In spite of repeated US sanctions Russia has reemerged as a force to reckon with and oil & gas has been central to it. Russia holds the largest natural gas reserves in the world, with more than half of them located in Siberia. Over 70% of the country's reserves are currently held by Gazprom, a state-owned company. Russia holds 1,688 trillion c...

  Part 3 - China and Central Asia Originally Published at  http://www.uniindia.com/china-and-central-asia/business-economy/news/2254106.html On Dec 4, 2020 Part 2 - Natural Gas and China "Natural gas supplies to the People’s Republic of China have helped drive Central Asia’s economic growth for the last decade. For no country is this more true than for Turkmenistan: over 90 percent of Turkmenistan’s total exports is natural gas exports to China. This figure is up from near zero before the Central Asia-China gas pipeline opened in December 2009. In 2019, Turkmenistan sold Beijing just over 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan each selling 10 bcm. The initial outbreak of COVID-19 in China caused significant disruption to these supplies. As the pandemic continues to have an effect on energy demand, a result of the ongoing global economic slowdown, the short-term outlook for Central Asia is troubled. However, over the medium term, the crisis...

  Part 2 - Natural Gas and China Originally published at  http://www.uniindia.com/~/natural-gas-and-china/Business%20Economy/news/2251691.html on Dec 2, 2020 Part 1 – China’s insatiable demand forenergy   here China’s natural gas production was around 120 bcm in 2020 and could reach 175-180 bcm in 2030. IEA (International Energy Agency) (2015) indicates that China’s natural gas production prospects will depend heavily on its unconventional gas development, which faces various barriers from environmental and social hazards and geological challenges. China began to import LNG-based natural gas in 2006 and pipeline gas since 2010.   According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, China imported 33.6 bcm and 26.8 bcm of natural gas by pipeline and LNG in 2015, respectively. China’s dependence on foreign natural gas was 31.3% in 2015, while imports were only 1.8% in 2006. By 2030 it is likely to be well over 60%. Natural Gas is transported in two ways. The first...

  Part 1 – China’s insatiable demand for energy Originally published at  http://www.uniindia.com/uniindia/article/business-economy/China-s-insatiable-demand-for-energy/2250489.html    on Dec 1, 2020 China’s growth during the last three decades have been spectacular and unprecedented. As is usually the case, such growth is powered by enormous consumption of energy and there’s a downside to it. Being a large country with a high population, China has rapidly overtaken other countries in energy consumption. It went past The United States and The EU about 8-9 years ago and is now almost as big as the other two put together. China is also now the biggest CO2 emitter on the planet, bigger than The US and The EU put together. China’s electricity production was powered by coal and this dirty fuel is the root cause of its environmental pollution problems. China has embarked on a big plan to replace coal by cleaner alternatives over a 25-year period. It has had some measu...