China, Russia, Central Asian countries plan energy forum

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Aug 22 China and Russia are leading a Central Asian initiative to set up a forum that will aim to ensure stable supplies of oil gas, said an official from a six- nation regional group.

"Leaders of all six nations agreed to form a dialogue and create a strategic mechanism to ensure energy security,'' Bolat Nurgaliev, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation secretary general, said in Beijing on Wednesday. "We also welcome participation from all energy producing nations in the region to join in the dialoge,'' he said, comparing the proposed forum to Opec. The Shanghai group, set up with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in 2001 to strengthen cooperation and combat terrorism, has become a forum for Russia and China to counter US influence in energy-rich Central Asia. Its decision in 2005 to admit Iran as an observer sparked alarm in the US.

Nurgaliev said the group wasn't setting out to challenge the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, producer of more than 40% of the world's oil. He wouldn't exclude inviting Iran and other Middle Eastern nations to join the energy forum.

"We do not intend to be a threat to anyone,'' he said at a briefing. "We only want to help producer nations and consumer nations better balance trade in the Central Asian region.''

The objectives of the Shanghai group, known as the SCO, were likely to prevent it from clashing with Opec, said Sun Zhuanchi, a Central Asian expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. "Opec is made up primarily of energy producers, while the SCO is made up of both energy producing and energy consuming states,'' Sun said in an interview. "Besides, to actualize such a goal won't be easy as every nation in Asia has different priorities and interests when it comes to oil.''

At the group's summit last week in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, the leaders of China and Kazakhstan agreed to finance and build a network of pipelines to supply the world's fastest- growing major Economy with Kazakh oil and gas from the Caspian Sea region. The 750-kilometer (1,200-mile) extension of the Atasu- Alashankou oil pipeline will connect China with two oil fields, Kenkiyak and Kumkol, owned and operated by Kazakh units of state- run China National Petroleum Corp.