(I) The discovery of huge oil reserves in Daging in North Eastern China in 1959 allowed them to end their dependence on Soviet oil supplies. (II) Daging's many rigs still pump away, but output from the ageing oil field is dropping off. (III) Similarly, though Eastern Siberia's oil resources appear to be promising, they have yet to be tapped commercially. (IV) Meanwhile, China's economic boom has produced a growing need for energy that only foreign supplies can satisfy. (V) As a result energy strategists in Beijing are now negotiating access to Russian oil in Southern Siberia.