缓解空气污染，中国花200亿美元从英国购买液化天然气

    中国总理李克强对英国进行为期三天的访问期间，中国最大的石油企业之一与英国石油公司（BP PLC）签订了一份价值200亿美元的液化天然气供应协议，同时还宣布与荷兰皇家壳牌石油公司（Royal Dutch Shell PLC）达成了战略伙伴关系。

    另外，李克强总理再次提出中国有意向资助英国建设下一代核电站，尽管由于担心政府建设新型核能的政策有可能会违反欧盟有关政府救助的法律，双方并未签订正式的投资协议。

    因为电厂燃煤和交通工具尾气导致很多城市空气重度污染，近年来中国对清洁能源的需求激增，与外国签订了大量订单，与英国石油公司的订单就是其中最新的一个。上个月，中国刚刚与俄国签订了一份为期30年、价值4,000亿美元的天然气供应协议。颇为讽刺的是，协议中部分天然气的供应来自于东西伯利亚油田。英国石油公司与俄国的合资企业就曾坐落于这个地区，但由于普京政府加强了对矿藏的直接控制，收购了这家合资公司中英国石油公司的股份。

    自从“深水地平线”钻井平台事故后，英国石油公司在美国屡次碰壁。因此，这次与中国成功达成协议对它来说确实是件好事。根据项目要求，从2019年开始，英国石油公司每年要向中国海洋石油总公司( China National Offshore Oil Company, 简称中海油)供应150万吨液化天然气，相当于720亿立方英尺的天然气，为期20年。协议虽然没有确定天然气供应地，但英国石油公司液化天然气供应地遍布全球，甚至包括墨西哥湾天然气管道终端。据称，它已经在从印度尼西亚向中海油供应液化天然气。

    卡梅伦政府对这个项目态度暧昧，在李克强访英的简报中只字未提该石油协议，而把话题集中在其它不痛不痒的项目上，包括家具与儿童电视节目等。

    自牛脑海绵状病(疯牛病)大规模爆发以来，中国一直禁止从英国进口牛肉。李克强此行还明确表示中国会解除对进口英国牛肉的禁令。（财富中文网）

    译者：Joseph

    One of China’s biggest oil companies signed a $20 billion deal with BP PLC BP for liquefied natural gas deliveries, and announced a strategic partnership with Royal Dutch Shell PLC RD , in a flurry of activity marking a three-day visit to the UK by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

    Li also repeated China’s interest in financing the construction of the next generation of nuclear power plants in the UK, although there were no firm deals struck due to the ongoing uncertainty over whether the government’s policy on new nuclear build breaks European Union law on state aid.

    The deal with BP is the latest in a series of mega-deals illustrating China’s insatiable demand for clean-burning gas, as pollution from coal-fired power plants and vehicle use threatens to reach crisis levels in many of its cities. Only last month, China signed a much larger $400 billion 30-year deal to import gas from Russia. That deal, ironically, was based in part on supplies of gas from fields in eastern Siberia which BP’s former joint venture in Russia had been squeezed out of as Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin assumed more direct control of the country’s mineral wealth.

    The Chinese deal is a welcome piece of good news for BP after repeated disappointments in the U.S. as it struggles with the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. It will see BP will deliver up to 1.5 million tons a year of LNG–equivalent to 72 billion cubic feet of gas–to China National Offshore Oil Company, or CNOOC, for 20 years from 2019 onwards. It’s not yet fixed where the gas will come from, but BP has a global portfolio of LNG assets, including the opportunity to export from terminals in the Gulf of Mexico. It already supplies LNG to CNOOC from Indonesia.

    The office of UK Prime Minister David Cameron, in an ostentatious display of coyness, made no mention of the deal in briefing notes on Li’s visit, focusing instead on a list of less controversial deals involving furniture and children’s TV programs.

    Li also confirmed that China would lift a ban on imports of beef from Britain that has been in place since contaminated feed triggered a widespread outbreak of Bovine spongiform encephalitis, or Mad Cow Disease.