ABSTRACT
Future directions of China's oil diplomacy will involve relations among all major powers in Asia, with special emphasis on Soviet-Japanese and Sino-Japanese affairs, as well as general Chinese foreign policy objectives. The initial Soviet proposal involved Japanese loans to extract oil from fields in the province of Tyumen in eastern Siberia and to construct a pipeline from that point to Nakhodka on the Pacific coast. The Japanese have been particularly hopeful that China's increasing need for offshore technology will permit the compromises in self-reliance necessary for joint exploitation of the Po Hai and Yellow Sea areas. China's exports to Japan have risen from 20,000 bpd in 1973 to 160,000 bpd in 1975 and have been priced from a low of $3.75 per barrel prior to the Arab embargo to a high of $14.80 per barrel in early 1974.
