Russia's New Era Will Alter Its Political Situation (Source: Sohu.com, Xinhua.com)

◆Russia considers to enhance economic cooperation with China, especially in energy cooperation. Two events taken place recently can prove this: one is the Eastern Siberia Pacific pipeline started to transport petroleum to China, reaching 15 million tons per year in the future 20 years; the other is that the two economies have settled the problem of oil price by the end of February this year. With Russia's help in exporting natural gas to China, we can step up the pace of reforming energy using structure.

◆Japan also pays much attention on Russia by investing a lot in energy projects in Russia in order to urgently explore a new stable oil importing source after political fight in the Middle-east, the largest oil source to Japan.

◆It is reported that the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China plan to hold a new conference about Iran's issue, earliest in April.

◆The Brent price stayed at US$125.52 in 8 March, resulted from the unstable political situation of the Middle-East regions. Under such circumstances, more people are concerned that the rising oil price will probably induce global recession. Specifically, in terms of supply-demand side, the current situation seems to be slightly changed, unless the main oil importing countries substantially decline their demand, as what has happened now , the United States, the world largest oil demand economy, has dramatically cut off its demand, while China unexpectedly reduces its economic growth rate to 7.5 percent. Following this trend, the oil demand growth rates in 2012 and 2013 will be declined to 1.2 percent and 1.5 percent respectively, as perShort-term Energy Prospectspublished by Energy Information Administration in 6 March.