Producers would have to develop new products and
uses for the resource — gasoline, diesel, heating
oil, asphalt, lubricants, petrochemicals and aviation fuel — before
oil supplanted coal, wood and whale
oil, the
dominant energy sources
of the day.
Beyond the actual gas project and LNG sales, China's state - run shipping conglomerate COSCO has also secured a 50 percent stake in the four LNG shipping carriers serving Yamal.90 Chinese engineers and workers have been deployed to the Yamal Peninsula to help construct surrounding infrastructure, which includes a Chinese - produced polar drilling rig.91 Moreover, a Chinese
oil and gas rig producer now provides Russia with about 60 percent
of its imported
oil rig supplies, indicating that China is becoming a
dominant player in this sphere.92 Chinese media recently hailed Yamal as an example
of China's construction and engineering prowess and a symbol
of its transformation into an Arctic player.93 In return for China stepping into support the project, senior officials from Novatek, the main shareholder
of the project, announced that the first LNG shipment would symbolically go to China.94 But a British subsidiary
of Malaysia's Petronas purchased the first shipment
of Yamal LNG and sold it to France's Engie, which then shipped the cargo to its Boston import facility for American
use.95 Western sanctions on Novatek, Russia's largest independent national gas producer and a company with close ties to the Kremlin, made Yamal's pivot to China possible, as sanctions forced Russia to find an alternative source
of investment and technology.
Gary Petersen, Smashed, 2008
Oil on canvas, 56 x 40 inches January 8 — February 7, 2009 This exhibition examines many
of the ways in which artists
use line as the
dominant element in creating abstract imagery.