Russia to increase energy exports to Asia-Pacific

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia - Russia would increase exports of oil and natural gas to the Asia-Pacific to counterbalance instability in Middle East supplies, an APEC expert said Monday.

The proposed increase was expected to account for between 22 and 25 percent of Russia's total exports by 2020, Russian APEC Study Center deputy director Gleb Ivashentsov said at the 2012 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum now underway in this Russian Far East city.

Ivashentsov said Russia was ready to participate in the development of the Asian energy sector, including joint projects to build nuclear power plants.

Russia's contribution towards energy supplies in Asia Pacific would reduce the region's reliance on hydrocarbon imports from the unstable Middle East, he said.

But he said the problem with increased Russian exports of oil and gas to the Asia-Pacific market was that existing pipelines would carry supplies only to China and South Korea while the rest of Russian natural gas had to be transported by sea in the form of LNG.

Ivashentsov, who served as Russian ambassador to South Korea between 2005 and 2009, said earlier all the countries in the Asia-Pacific region would have similar concerns in energy security and, by 2020, more than half the world's energy demand would come from northeastern Asia.