Title: The Changing Geopolitical Importance of Siberia
Headings: The Changing Geopolitical Importance of Siberia
The Changing Geopolitical Importance of Siberia
Summary
Development of Siberia
Natural Resources and Russian Strategy
Importance of East Asia

Content: And Moscow and Beijing in 2009 commissioned the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, which has a capacity of 600,000 barrels per day. The development of energy ties with East Asia, such as developing untapped oil reserves in eastern Siberia and Sakhalin and natural gas reserves in central Siberia, appears to be increasingly important for Russia. This is especially true because consumption of minerals and energy resources in East Asia, especially in China, is growing. Two trends in Europe have demonstrated to Russia the importance of building closer energy ties with East Asia. The first is that European energy consumption, for demographic and economic reasons, is reaching its peak. The second is that many European countries are in the process of diversifying their energy inputs, to the detriment of Russian energy exports. Although major "Southern Corridor" projects like Nabucco — projects that are intended to build infrastructure around Russia — have not met expectations, other energy inputs are starting to chip away at Gazprom's market share. Particularly important is the growth of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which has come to represent 30 percent of the global natural gas supply. Already several LNG import terminals have come online in Western Europe , and for the first time Central and Eastern European countries, namely Poland and Lithuania, have made significant progress in securing LNG import structures. In the meantime, the EU Third Energy Package, which seeks to unbundle supply, distribution and sales of energy assets, threatens Russia's position in many European countries, where Gazprom is dominant in both supply and distribution.