OPEC, Russia seeks to boost China share
(Bloomberg.com)
Updated: 2005-12-21 20:13

Limited Fluctuations

The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning agency, limits fuel price fluctuations to 8 percent from levels it sets to curb inflation and manufacturing costs. It hasn't raised fuel prices in step with crude oil costs.

"We want to know how we can help meet China's energy needs and understand from them what energy policies they plan to pursue," Adnan Shihab-Eldin, OPEC's acting secretary general, said in an interview in Kuwait City on Dec. 12.

OPEC's members are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Nigeria, Libya, Indonesia, Algeria and Qatar. Skeikh Ahmad hands the OPEC presidency to Nigeria's Edmund Daukoru at the end of the year.

Chinese oil demand will increase 6.1 percent next year to 7 million barrels a day, the Paris-based International Energy Agency said on Dec. 5. The country's oil production isn't keeping up with consumption, spurring demand for imports. Domestic output will grow 3.3 percent to 3.7 million barrels a day next year, the State Information Center said on Nov. 12.

Iran, OPEC's No. 2 producer, is China's largest supplier of oil after Saudi Arabia, accounting for 14 percent of Chinese imports, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Sinopec signed a $100 billion agreement last year to import 250 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas from Iran over 30 years.