Structural Shifts in the Fuel and Energy Sectors of the Far East: A Spatial Analysis

Abstract

This paper assesses the effects of the investment shock to the fuel and energy sectors of the Far East within the framework of the Eastern vector of Russia’s energy policy. We systemize the basic investment projects implemented in these sectors in order to increase export supplies of fuel and energy resources to the Asia-Pacific countries and assess the shifts in the structure of fuel and energy resources production in the region over the period from 2012 to 2019. In calculations, we use the classical and spatial versions of the method of structural decomposition of the growth rates of the sectoral indicators (shift-share analysis). On the basis of structural decomposition of the changes on the average annual number of employees and the GVA of the fuel and energy complex of the Far East at different spatial levels (national, macroregional (interregional) and regional) we draw the following conclusions: a strong impulse for development in the framework of the Eastern vector of Russia’s energy policy was given to extractive industries, their competitive effects were positive and overrode the negative shocks, which were destabilizing the national economy; an important factor in the economic dynamics of the extractive industries of the fuel and energy complex were gains/losses in inter-regional competition, but not spatial externalities; in the oil and gas industry, unlike in the coal industry, there is potential for formation of spatial externalities; developing faster than others, extractive industries remain enclaves in regional economies

Keywords

• fuel and energy complex
• eastern vector of russia’s energy policy
• investment project
• shift-share analysis
• interregional interaction
• local competitiveness
• spatial externalities
• far east