The head of Russia's natural gas giant Gazprom has held top-level discussions with North Korea's prime minister and other oil and gas officials in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, the company said Friday.
Gazprom did not say when CEO Alexei Miller and other company officials traveled to the North Korean capital or how long they were there. It said the parties had discussed cooperation in the oil and gas sector with Prime Minister Pak Pong Ju, Vice Premier for Industry Ro Tu Chol, and Oil Minister Ko Deng Sik.
No one answered the phones at Gazprom's press service Friday evening.
The Gazprom statement said that exploration work coordinated by North Korea's oil ministry in 1997 had located seven promising off and on-shore oil and gas fields. The Korean Corporation for Oil Extraction is the only oil and gas company in North Korea, with exclusive rights to explore and develop reserves.
Gazprom, the world's largest producer of natural gas, had been mulling various routes for pipeline options to supply South Korea and Japan with oil and gas, including a route through North Korea. Late last year, the Russian government announced that it would build the pipeline along a route favored by Japan.
Analysts, however, say the route is far from certain.
Alfa bank strategist Chris Weafer said Miller's visit appeared to be in line with President Vladimir Putin's stated intent of using Gazprom as a powerful geopolitical tool to forge new political alliances with Asia.
Russia wants to play a role in bringing North Korea into the world community, he said.
"But unlike America, which threatens military action, Russia comes bearing an economic olive leaf, which could take the form of a promise to use North Korea as a transit route for oil and gas to South Korea and on to Japan," he said.
Russia's ties with the communist North have improved after souring in the wake of the 1991 Soviet collapse and after Moscow established ties with South Korea in 1990.
Last August, a top Russian envoy said North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il intended to visit Russia again, nearly two years after he made his last trip amid a warming in relations between the Soviet-era allies. In 2002, Kim took a four-day rail tour across the Russian Far East, visiting factories and businesses and meeting with Putin. The previous year, Kim traveled across Russia and back in a specially outfitted train.
Gazprom controls some 10 percent of the world's gas reserves and the company has seen its role as state energy champion expand after the announcement of a pending merger with state-controlled oil company Rosneft last year.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
RSS