Free Republic

The blast deals a serious blow to Georgia’s efforts to recover from its ten-day war over South Ossetia in the face of the continuing Russian military presence.

You can call mainland Chinese leader Hu Jintao's tour of Saudi Arabia and Africa an energy journey aimed at securing energy to supply his country's explosive economic development. Mainland China is already the world's second largest consumer of oil, after the United States. Hu, on the heels of his four-day visit to the United States last week, embarked on a four-nation visit to Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya. It is obvious that Hu's post-U.S. trip has one major purpose -- grabbing oil and other resources to fuel his country's gargantuan appetite for energy and natural resources. On Wednesday in...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. When Russia cut the flow of natural gas to Ukraine, it was more than just a pricing dispute. It was the use of a dominant economic position to make a political statement. In Paris, Le Monde called Moscow's action, "The first declaration of war in the 21st century." France is one of the many European countries that use natural gas shipped from Russia through pipelines that cut across Ukraine. Europe imports about a quarter of its natural gas from Russia, a development which President Ronald Reagan tried to block during the...

China’s top offshore oil and gas producer, CNOOC Ltd., will begin operations this year at a gas field in the East China Sea despite a territorial dispute with Japan. ..CNOOC Chairman Fu Chengyu told reporters on Tuesday he expected the Chunxiao field, located south of Japan, to begin operations in August and September... ....On Monday Japanese media reported Japan had demanded that China halt construction at the Chunxiao natural gas field. Hydrocarbon deposits were found in the early 1970s... In 2004 China’s construction of the Chunxiao natural gas production plant 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the disputed area aggravated tensions...

Rattled by China's development of the Chunxiao gas field in the East China Sea, the government is setting up a task force to ensure Japan's vast ocean interests are protected. The task force comprising officials from various ministries and agencies will be in place this month and operate with a focus on Okinotorishima island, Japan's southernmost point. Located more than 1,600 kilometers south of the capital, the island is part of the Ogasawara chain and comes under the jurisdiction of Tokyo. Actually, the island is two tiny islets: but its location gives Japan a huge advantage. The exclusive economic zone...

HONG KONG - A notable feature of 2004 was the volatility in oil prices - New York light sweet crude prices reached a peak of US$55.67 on October 25, ending the year up 33.6% at $43.45 per barrel. While a number of supply-side and supply-chain factors have contributed to this situation, the most significant long-term factor contributing to rising oil prices is an increase in Asian demand, most notably from China. China's unprecedented growth not only makes it a driver of a long-term increase in energy prices, but also the most vulnerable to rising oil prices. China, which has been...

It has been more than 200 years and yet the miracle has not been dulled. A population of a few million people provided an unbelievable wealth of talent, integrity, intelligence, and honesty. How could we have been so fortunate to have the likes of Washington, Madison, Jefferson, and Franklin providing leadership for an idea about how people could best live in the aggregate? There are explanations that have some plausibility. Genius clusters may not be random, as genius may attract genius. There certainly were not the possibilities that exist today in medicine, physics, computer sciences, and business to pull the...