Russia's Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko, right, speaks as Zhang Guobao, China's Vice Chairman of National Development Reform Commission, left, looks on during a press conference at the G8 plus China, India, South Korea Energy Ministerial Meeting in Aomori, northern Japan, on Sunday, June 8, 2008.
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Eight Less Russia
The two-day meetings of energy ministers from G8 and their counterparts from India, China and South Korea dedicated to the global increase in energy prices ended in Japan yesterday, June 8, 2008. Of 11 ministers, 10 called for the surge in crude oil/gas output. Russia’s Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko was the only one to challenge the initiative.
Exactly power engineering will be the highlight of the G8 summit that begins in Hokkaido in a month. Given that seven nations in the G8 (but for Russia) are the biggest energy consumers in the world, their current agitation appears well-justified. Crude oil prices soared to nearly $139/bbl past weekend and may peak to $150 by the time of the summit.
The venue of the recent event was Aomori, northern Japan, which is the biggest nuclear center of the country. Energy ministers of three biggest energy consumers in Asia - India, China and South Korea - arrived Saturday, a day before the summit, to hold separate negotiations with U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari. The result of that get-together was the call on energy producers to step up the output and oppose the price growth.
The spirit was the same during the yesterday’s event. The overwhelming majority of G8 ministers and their counterparts from three Asian states (that joined the summit in the afternoon) manifested rare consensus of opinion, always emphasizing that energy security, including stability on crude oil market, is the highlight for any nation and that the failure to contain prices will lead to global recession. OPEC that bluntly refused to accelerate the production at least till September was the key target of attacks.
Russia’s Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko was the only one standing apart from common unity. Detached Shmatko listened to the colleagues without particular enthusiasm and his reaction to the demanded increase in production of crude oil and gas was obviously cool.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 09, 2008
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