China's surveys Lower Confidence about Growth and Increasing worries over Capital Markets

 "Surveys conducted by China's central bank have indicated that bankers, entrepreneurs and depositors are worried about the economy and have less confidence, the Shanghai Securities News reported Saturday.

According to the reports, 34.1 percent of surveyed bankers and 36.4 percent of surveyed entrepreneurs believe the macroeconomy has slowed.

The index for loan demand was 72.5 percent, declining 4.9 percentage points from the previous quarter, while the index for the manufacturing sector posted the largest drop of 5.5 percentage points.

Just 30 percent of all surveyed companies said they are optimistic about capital turnover and fund withdrawals.

Affected by increasing worries over the capital market, 46.2 percent of respondents said they were inclined to make greater deposits, while 35.7 percent stuck to investment, 1.9 percentage points lower than in the previous quarter.

The reports said that 59.1 percent of respondents believe commodities prices are too high, while 66.7 percent said housing prices are not acceptable".

Source: Xinhuanet

Report of the International Energy Agency . Natural Gas future Golden Age?

"Natural gas is poised to enter a golden age, but will do so only if a significant proportion
of the world’s vast resources of unconventional gas – shale gas, tight gas and coalbed
methane – can be developed profitably and in an environmentally acceptable manner.
Advances in upstream technology have led to a surge in the production of unconventional
gas in North America in recent years, holding out the prospect of further increases in
production there and the emergence of a large-scale unconventional gas industry in other
parts of the world, where sizeable resources are known to exist. The boost that this would
give to gas supply would bring a number of benefits in the form of greater energy diversity
and more secure supply in those countries that rely on imports to meet their gas needs, as
well as global benefits in the form of reduced energy costs.
Yet a bright future for unconventional gas is far from assured: numerous hurdles need
to be overcome, not least the social and environmental concerns associated with its
extraction. Producing unconventional gas is an intensive industrial process, generally
imposing a larger environmental footprint than conventional gas development. More wells
are often needed and techniques such as hydraulic fracturing are usually required to boost
the flow of gas from the well. The scale of development can have major implications for
local communities, land use and water resources.
 We assume that the conditions are in place, including approaches to unconventional gas development consistent with environment safe production and social concerns resolved
which would allow for a continued global expansion of gas supply from unconventional resources,
with far-reaching consequences for global energy markets. According to the latest report from the IEA greater availability of gas would have
a strong moderating impact on gas prices and, as a result, global gas demand rises by more
than 50% between 2010 and 2035. The increase in demand for gas is equal to the growth
coming from coal, oil and nuclear combined, and ahead of the growth in renewables. The
share of gas in the global energy mix reaches 25% in 2035, overtaking coal to become the
second-largest primary energy source after oil.
 Production of unconventional gas, primarily shale gas, more than triples in the Golden
Rules Case(study scenario shale production in a safe an environmentally clean and
friendly towards communities, land and water resources)to 1.6 trillion cubic metres in 2035. This accounts for nearly two-thirds of
incremental gas supply over the period to 2035, and the share of unconventional gas in total
gas output rises from 14% today to 32% in 2035. Most of the increase comes after 2020,
reflecting the time needed for new producing countries to establish a commercial industry.
The largest producers of unconventional gas over the projection period are the United
States, which moves ahead of Russia as the largest global natural gas producer, and China,
whose large unconventional resource base allows for very rapid growth in unconventional
production starting towards 2020. There are also large increases in Australia, India, Canada
and Indonesia. Unconventional gas production in the European Union, led by Poland, is
sufficient after 2020 to offset continued decline in conventional output.
Global investment in unconventional production constitutes 40% of the $6.9 trillion (in
year-2010 dollars) required for cumulative upstream gas investment in the Golden Rules
Case. Countries that were net importers of gas in 2010 (including the United States)
account for more than three-quarters of total unconventional upstream investment,
gaining the wider economic benefits associated with improved energy trade balances and
lower energy prices. The investment reflects the high number of wells required: output at
the levels anticipated in the Golden Rules Case would require more than one million new
unconventional gas wells worldwide between now and 2035, twice the total number of gas
wells currently producing in the United States". 

Mexico's Project: Reform of Energy Legistation.

 "It  was the first great nationalisation of oil outside the Soviet Union and created the first major national oil company. Women queued to donate jewellery and chickens to pay the bill. It shaped the nation's evolution, with oil sustaining a near one-party state for 71 years. But now Mexico's March 18, 1938, nationalisation may be on its way out.

Indeed, an unaccountable state within a state, providing a third of government revenues, Pemex arguably distorted the whole course of Mexican democracy.
.

  Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto, is hoping to end Pemex's monopoly before the year is out. It's essential he succeeds as the company's failings are holding back the whole economy.

Production has dropped year since 2004 as Pemex's flagship, Cantarell, once the world's second-biggest producing field, went into steep decline.

Falling Mexican output helped to undermine non-Opec production and drive the price boom of the past decade.

Mexico could become a net oil importer by 2020, while despite its hydrocarbon riches, it imports a third of its gas, mostly from its northern neighbour.

The famous Eagle Ford formation, one of the US's two leading shale oil plays, extends across the border from Texas. Yet Mexico, which could have the world's sixth-largest shale gas resources, has drilled just 15 wells; more than 4,000 wells were permitted in the Texas Eagle Ford alone last year.

The country's most promising new exploration province is the Gulf of Mexico. Shell and others have found oil in 3,000 metres of water, the deepest producing wells in the world, just over the US side of the border, but Mexico has barely ventured into these deep waters.
The case for reform has long been clear, but was blocked by Pemex's powerful trade unions, the company's ties to state governments, and by the constitution's commitment - still passionately backed by many Mexicans - to national ownership of mineral resources.

Mr Peña Nieto has to keep a tricky coalition of Mexico's three largest parties together to pass reform of oil and the voting system.

It's likely under his plans that the state would still own the oil, while sharing profits with private investors in shale and deep-water exploration".

Source: TheNational

China's Central Bank reiterates a stable and pro growth monetary policy

China's central bank said on Sunday that the country will continue to implement the prudent monetary policy while fine-tuning it at the proper time.

It will keep a stable and moderate growth in its credit supply as well as social financing, said the People's Bank of China in a statement issued after a quarterly meeting of its monetary policy commission.

Sovereign Funds The Wealth of Countries The case of Norway

The Government Pension Fund of Norway

Inception            Origin       Assets Billions
                                               US$

   1990                 Oil               737.2

 The Goverment Pension Fund of Norway is a sovereign fund, where the surplus wealth,
produced by Norwegian petroleum income is held. They changed their fund's name fron
the original one, The Petroleum Fund of Norway.

Origin

In 1969 oil was dicovered in the North Sea.
The Norwegian State Oil Company was founded as a private limited company owned by the Government of Norway on 14 July 1972 by a unanimous act passed by the Norwegian parliament.  The political motivation was Norwegian participation in the oil industry.
In 1973 the company started work acquiring a presence in the petrochemical industry.
Later in 1990,in the Norwegian Parliament The Petroleum Fund of Norway was created,to counter the effects of the volatile price of oil in the international markets and the diminishing oil reserves in the future . So that the income received by the Goverment would be more smooth and avoiding the disruptive effects of the oil
prices and volume of Reserves.And to support a long-term management of the petroleum revenues.