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Toyota says it is recalling about 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems – the latest in a string of embarrassing safety lapses at the world’s largest auto maker.

“I apologize for causing trouble and worries for many customers over the quality and safety of Toyota,” president Akio Toyoda said at a press conference Tuesday in Tokyo.

“We sincerely acknowledge safety concerns from our customers,” he said. “We have decided to recall as we regard safety for our customers as our foremost priority.”

The recall is the latest blow to Toyota Motor Corp., TM-N which is in the midst of recalling more than 7 million vehicles worldwide because of problems with floor mats, which can trap gas pedals, and faulty gas pedals that are slow to return to the idle position. The Prius wasn’t part of those recalls.

There have been about 200 complaints in Japan and the U.S. about a delay when the brakes in the Prius were pressed in cold conditions and on some bumpy roads. The delay doesn’t indicate a brake failure. The company says the problem can be fixed by reprogramming the software that controls the braking system.

Toyota officials went to Japan’s Transport Ministry earlier Tuesday to formally notify officials the company is recalling the 2010 Prius gas-electric hybrid – the world’s top-selling hybrid car. The auto maker is also recalling two other hybrid models in Japan, the Lexus HS250h sedan, sold in the U.S. and Japan, and the Sai, which is sold only in Japan.

The 223,000 cars being recalled in Japan include nearly 200,000 Priuses sold from April last year through Monday, according to papers the auto maker filed with the ministry. The Prius is Japan’s top-selling car. In the U.S., Toyota will recall 133,000 Prius cars and 14,500 Lexus HS250h vehicles. The Prius is also being recalled in Europe.

Mr. Toyoda has been criticized for being largely invisible during the two weeks after the company announced Jan. 21 the gas pedal recall in the U.S., Europe and China.

He apologized at his first public press conference last Friday, but was criticized by the Japanese media for failing to outline concrete steps to tackle the safety crisis and reassure customers around the world.

Speaking in English at the end of his statement Tuesday, Mr. Toyoda said, “We will redouble our commitment to quality as a lifeline of our company. We will do everything in our power to regain the confidence of our customers.”

Toyota is recalling nearly 200,000 of its signature Prius green cars in Japan for braking problems, the latest in a string of embarrassing safety problems at the world’s largest auto maker.

Toyota Motor Corp. TM-Npresident Akio Toyoda will hold a news conference at the automaker’s Tokyo office later Tuesday to outline details of the braking problem, including plans for a possible recall in the U.S., a company official told The Associated Press.

The number of Prius gas-electric hybrids being recalled would swell to about 300,000 if there is a recall in the U.S. and other regions.

The braking problem for the third-generation remodelled Prius is the latest safety woe for Toyota, which is already trying to fix problems in millions of vehicles recalled for other defects, including a sticky gas pedal.

Mike Michels, a spokesman at Toyota’s U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., would not confirm a U.S. recall, but said the timing of any U.S. recall announcement “would be the same as in Japan.” A U.S. Department of Transportation spokeswoman said Toyota had not informed it of any recall.

Toyota officials went to Japan’s Transport Ministry to formally notify officials the company is recalling the 2010 Prius gas-electric hybrid — the world’s top-selling hybrid car — and two other hybrid models.

In total, the recall numbers over 223,000 hybrid cars. Toyota will recall nearly 200,000 Prius cars sold in Japan from April last year through Monday, according to papers the auto maker filed with the ministry.

A fix requires new software that oversees the controls of the antilock brakes and will resolve a delay in the braking, the papers say.

Toyota had earlier said a fix was already in cars in production starting late last month, but the recall includes those cars as well.

The two other hybrids being recalled are the Lexus HS250h sedan, sold in the U.S. and Japan, and the Sai, which is sold only in Japan. The new software for those models is still being worked out, Toyota said.

Toyota’s plug-in hybrid is also being recalled in Japan — a largely experimental model for rental and government use, with 159 sold.

U.S. safety officials have launched an investigation into problems with the brakes.

The recall in Japan will cover about 170,000 of the 2010 model Prius, which went on sale in May. The auto maker has fixed the programming glitch in Prius models that went on sale since last month, but had done nothing yet on the cars sold before then, according to Toyota.

There have been nearly 200 complaints in Japan and the U.S. of drivers experiencing a short delay before the brakes kick in — a problem that can be fixed with a software programming change. The delay doesn’t indicate a brake failure.

The problem is suspected in four crashes resulting in two minor injuries, according to data gathered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is investigating the matter. Toyota says it’s co-operating with NHTSA’s investigation.

Toyota is in the midst of repairing 5 million vehicles recalled in the U.S. because of problems with floor mats, which can trap gas pedals. It also has recalled 2.3 million vehicles because of concerns that their gas pedals are slow to return to the idle position. The 2010 Prius wasn’t part of either recall.

Problems with hybrid braking systems haven’t been limited to Toyota. Ford Motor Co. said last week it plans to fix 17,600 Mercury Milan and Ford Fusion gas-electric hybrids because of a software problem that can give drivers the impression that the brakes have failed. The auto maker says the problem occurs in transition between two braking systems and at no time are drivers without brakes.

The Prius is Toyota’s top-selling model in Japan, but not in the U.S., where the company sold 140,000 last year, far less than the 357,000 Camrys.

But it holds a cherished spot in its lineup and is symbolic of Toyota’s leadership in the “green” car market.

Toyota was one of the first companies to mass-market a hybrid that combines an electric motor with a gas engine, introducing the Prius in Japan in 1997. Its high gas mileage made it popular among environmentally conscious drivers, especially when gas prices spiked two years ago.

But the complexity of the Prius, a highly computerized car, has led to problems in the past. In 2005, the company repaired 75,000 of them to fix software glitches that caused the engine to stall. It has also had trouble with headlights going out.

The federal Competition Bureau has launched an aggressive attack on the Canadian Real Estate Association, challenging its rules governing the Multiple Listing Service and calling for a radical change in how homes are sold in Canada.

“Our concern is that CREA are improperly and unlawfully leveraging their control over MLS in order to impose these restrictions and to deny competitive forces and to deny good old-fashioned market competition,” said Competition Commissioner Melanie Aitken. “This case is focused pure and simple: Let consumers have the choice, let agents have the opportunity to satisfy and serve those choices.”

The MLS has been around for more than 50 years and only registered agents are allowed to list homes on the service. The MLS trademark is owned by CREA, which has nearly 100,000 members, and each real-estate board operates the service in their region. Roughly 90 per cent of all residential real-estate transactions in Canada involve MLS data.

The bureau has asked the federal Competition Tribunal to strike down a series of rules CREA adopted in 2007 that tightened the MLS listing requirements.

Ms. Aitken said the rules stifled competition because they restricted the type of services real-estate agents offered, which resulted in higher fees for consumers. Agents who wanted to offer a wider range of services, such as flat fees instead of traditional commissions charged by full-service agents, have been excluded from the MLS by CREA, she added. “What that means is consumers don’t have any choice, it’s either all services or nothing,” she said.

CREA president Dale Ripplinger called Ms. Aitken’s decision “surprising and disappointing,” and said her allegations about the MLS restrictions were “simply false.”

“We do not agree with the bureau’s position that certain CREA rules are anti-competitive, either as a matter of fact or as a matter of law,” he said in a statement. CREA has insisted the 2007 changes were meant to protect the integrity of the MLS and ensure consumers had accurate information.

Mr. Ripplinger added that CREA had always expressed a willingness to work with the bureau to clarify the MLS rules. He said the association notified the bureau last week that it had drafted rule changes.

Ms. Aitken said CREA’s efforts did not go far enough. “Unfortunately, CREA’s leadership has taken the view that they don’t accept what we think is absolutely necessary to protect Canadians, to inspire the kind of competition we all deserve,” she said.

Many industry players said the bureau has been building a case against CREA for three years and federal officials approached several real-estate agents up to half a dozen times seeking information.

“This is big news for us,” said Steve Neil, a Vancouver agent who runs HomeBuyAndSell.com and has pushed for changes. “There is no question it will change things in the next several years.”

Discount brokers, who mostly operate online, have long argued that CREA’s rule changes were designed to put them out of business and protect full-service agents who rely on commissions, which average about 5 per cent in total on a residential sale.

Before the 2007 changes, some discount brokers offered to list homes on MLS for a fee, typically less than $700. The homeowner then handled the sale.

The CREA changes required all agents to inspect homes before listing them on the MLS and work with other agents throughout the sale. As a result, discount brokers say they could no longer offer their low-fee services and had to charge more to carry out the various CREA requirements.

Mr. Neil, for example, charges customers $299 to list their home on MLS, plus $79 for each week the house is listed. When the house is sold, he charges a fee of 0.25 per cent of the sale price. Mr. Neil said if the bureau wins its case, he would likely lower his fees and change his services.

“We would offer probably a sort of à la carte -type menu of services; if customers want them they can pay for them,” he said. He also believes several American online services would expand into Canada.

“The consumer demand is phenomenal for this service,” added Donald Hewie, a real-estate agent in Ottawa who has also been pushing for changes. “This could be the beginning of the end for CREA.”

But others, such as Phil Soper, CEO of Royal LePage Real Estate Services, say consumers already have a significant amount of choice, and the bureau’s move could create a “frontier mentality” that might leave consumers worse off.

“CREA has gone to great lengths to understand the bureau’s concerns,” he said.

By breaking off settlement discussions and publicly challenging CREA’s practices, the bureau also appears to be signalling new and harder stand against anti-trust targets.

Shortly after Ms. Aitken was named commissioner of the bureau last year, she identified anti-competitive conduct as a priority for the regulator, which has been plagued for years by a poor enforcement track record.

MLS at a glance

The MLS – or multiple listing service – is a database of information about houses that are currently for sale.

Information is gathered by local real estate boards and compiled by the Canadian Real Estate Association, which owns the MLS system.

Years ago, the information was distributed to real estate agents on paper; then the service moved to an electronic form.

For more than a decade, some – but not all – of the information has been made available to the public on a CREA website (realtor.ca). But some details, such as past sale prices of properties, are restricted to licensed agents.

To get a listing on MLS, a seller must agree to have a licensed real estate agent handle all aspects of a transaction, including the presentation of offers and negotiation of the deal.

The Competition Bureau wants sellers to be able to list for a simple fee, and then deal with buyers themselves or go through a discount-priced agent.

Richard Blackwell

Commemorative gold coins are popular because they have our history engraved in their designs. Be they uncirculated or proof, these are offered to the coin collectors, enthusiasts, and investors because these people know how valuable these coins are.

Going back in history, the 1892 Columbian Exposition half dollar was one of the first commemorative gold coins that were circulated. These were produced for 53 different occasions and events.

Individuals are always on the look out for these coins because they know how valuable this is to a collection. They also know that if they were to re-sell these, they can make profit if they just sell at the right time.

Here are more examples of commemorative gold coins from the time they were introduced the US Government until today. There is the George Washington Carver Booker T. Washington Half Dollar that has been going around from 1951 to 1954.

Then there is the Brooker T. Washington Memorial Half Dollar that was circulating from 1946 to 1951.

In 1946, the Iowa Centennial Half Dollar was introduced. In 1938, the New Rochelle, New York Half Dollar was making waves and the Battle of Antietam Half Dollar in the year before that.

In 1936, fifteen commemorative gold coins came into circulation. These are the Maine Tercentenary Half Dollar, Wisconsin Territorial Centennial Half Dollar, Robinson-Arkansas Centennial Half Dollar, Rhode Island Tercentenay Half Dollar, the Virginia Bicentennial Half Dollar.

The Virginia Sesquicentennial Half Dollar, the Long Island Tercentenary Half Dollar, the Battle of Gettysburg Half Dollar, the Illinois Centennial Half Dollar, the Delaware Tercentenary Half Dollar, the South Carolina Sesquicentennial Half Dollar.

The Cleveland Great Lakes Exposition Half Dollar, the Cincinnati Music Center Half Dollar, the Connecticut Centennial Half Dollar, and the Bay Bridge San Francisco-Oakland Half Dollar.

In 1935 to 1936, the San Diego-California-Pacific Exposition Half Dollar was circulated.

In 1935, the following commemorative gold coins were manufactured: these were the Old Spanish Trail Half Dollar, the New York Sesquicentennial Half Dollar, and the Connecticut Tercentenary Half Dollar.

When you purchase commemorative gold coins, it’s like you’re already making an investment. You’re not buying gold per se but you are still investing in something gold and solid that you can make use out of in the years to come.

That is if you know when to buy and when to sell these. You can ask an expert on gold coins for the going rate of the commemorative gold coins that you have in your possession.

Two factors that affect the prices of these investments are the history behind these and the rarity.

The recent revelations of a International Energy Administration whistleblower that the IEA may have distorted key oil projections under intense U.S. pressure is, if true (and whistleblowers rarely come forward to advance their careers), a slow-burning thermonuclear explosion on future global oil production. The Bush administration’s actions in pressuring the IEA to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves have the potential to throw governments’ long-term planning into chaos.

Whatever the reality, rising long term global demands seem certain to outstrip production in the next decade, especially given the high and rising costs of developing new super-fields such as Kazakhstan’s offshore Kashagan and Brazil’s southern Atlantic Jupiter and Carioca fields, which will require billions in investments before their first barrels of oil are produced.

In such a scenario, additives and substitutes such as biofuels will play an ever-increasing role by stretching beleaguered production quotas. As market forces and rising prices drive this technology to the forefront, one of the richest potential production areas has been totally overlooked by investors up to now – Central Asia. Formerly the USSR’s cotton “plantation,” the region is poised to become a major player in the production of biofuels if sufficient foreign investment can be procured. Unlike Brazil, where biofuel is manufactured largely from sugarcane, or the United States, where it is primarily distilled from corn, Central Asia’s ace resource is an indigenous plant, Camelina sativa.

Of the former Soviet Caucasian and Central Asian republics, those clustered around the shores of the Caspian, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have seen their economies boom because of record-high energy prices, while Turkmenistan is waiting in the wings as a rising producer of natural gas.

Farther to the east, in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, geographical isolation and relatively scant hydrocarbon resources relative to their Western Caspian neighbors have largely inhibited their ability to cash in on rising global energy demands up to now. Mountainous Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan remain largely dependent for their electrical needs on their Soviet-era hydroelectric infrastructure, but their heightened need to generate winter electricity has led to autumnal and winter water discharges, in turn severely impacting the agriculture of their western downstream neighbors Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

What these three downstream countries do have however is a Soviet-era legacy of agricultural production, which in Uzbekistan’s and Turkmenistan case was largely directed towards cotton production, while Kazakhstan, beginning in the 1950s with Khrushchev’s “Virgin Lands” programs, has become a major producer of wheat. Based on my discussions with Central Asian government officials, given the thirsty demands of cotton monoculture, foreign proposals to diversify agrarian production towards biofuel would have great appeal in Astana, Ashgabat and Tashkent and to a lesser extent Astana for those hardy investors willing to bet on the future, especially as a plant indigenous to the region has already proven itself in trials.

Known in the West as false flax, wild flax, linseed dodder, German sesame and Siberian oilseed, camelina is attracting increased scientific interest for its oleaginous qualities, with several European and American companies already investigating how to produce it in commercial quantities for biofuel. In January Japan Airlines undertook a historic test flight using camelina-based bio-jet fuel, becoming the first Asian carrier to experiment with flying on fuel derived from sustainable feedstocks during a one-hour demonstration flight from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. The test was the culmination of a 12-month evaluation of camelina’s operational performance capability and potential commercial viability.

As an alternative energy source, camelina has much to recommend it. It has a high oil content low in saturated fat. In contrast to Central Asia’s thirsty “king cotton,” camelina is drought-resistant and immune to spring freezing, requires less fertilizer and herbicides, and can be used as a rotation crop with wheat, which would make it of particular interest in Kazakhstan, now Central Asia’s major wheat exporter. Another bonus of camelina is its tolerance of poorer, less fertile conditions. An acre sown with camelina can produce up to 100 gallons of oil and when planted in rotation with wheat, camelina can increase wheat production by 15 percent. A ton (1000 kg) of camelina will contain 350 kg of oil, of which pressing can extract 250 kg. Nothing in camelina production is wasted as after processing, the plant’s debris can be used for livestock silage. Camelina silage has a particularly attractive concentration of omega-3 fatty acids that make it a particularly fine livestock feed candidate that is just now gaining recognition in the U.S. and Canada. Camelina is fast growing, produces its own natural herbicide (allelopathy) and competes well against weeds when an even crop is established. According to Britain’s Bangor University’s Centre for Alternative Land Use, “Camelina could be an ideal low-input crop suitable for bio-diesel production, due to its lower requirements for nitrogen fertilizer than oilseed rape.”

Camelina, a branch of the mustard family, is indigenous to both Europe and Central Asia and hardly a new crop on the scene: archaeological evidence indicates it has been cultivated in Europe for at least three millennia to produce both vegetable oil and animal fodder.

Field trials of production in Montana, currently the center of U.S. camelina research, showed a wide range of results of 330-1,700 lbs of seed per acre, with oil content varying between 29 and 40%. Optimal seeding rates have been determined to be in the 6-8 lb per acre range, as the seeds’ small size of 400,000 seeds per lb can create problems in germination to achieve an optimal plant density of around 9 plants per sq. ft.

Camelina’s potential could allow Uzbekistan to begin breaking out of its most dolorous legacy, the imposition of a cotton monoculture that has warped the country’s attempts at agrarian reform since achieving independence in 1991. Beginning in the late 19th century, the Russian government determined that Central Asia would become its cotton plantation to feed Moscow’s growing textile industry. The process was accelerated under the Soviets. While Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were also ordered by Moscow to sow cotton, Uzbekistan in particular was singled out to produce “white gold.”

By the end of the 1930s the Soviet Union had become self-sufficient in cotton; five decades later it had become a major exporter of cotton, producing more than one-fifth of the world’s production, concentrated in Uzbekistan, which produced 70 percent of the Soviet Union’s output.

Try as it might to diversify, in the absence of alternatives Tashkent remains wedded to cotton, producing about 3.6 million tons annually, which brings in more than $1 billion while constituting approximately 60 percent of the country’s hard currency income.

Beginning in the mid-1960s the Soviet government’s directives for Central Asian cotton production largely bankrupted the region’s scarcest resource, water. Cotton uses about 3.5 acre feet of water per acre of plants, leading Soviet planners to divert ever-increasing volumes of water from the region’s two primary rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, into inefficient irrigation canals, resulting in the dramatic shrinkage of the rivers’ final destination, the Aral Sea. The Aral, once the world’s fourth-largest inland sea with an area of 26,000 square miles, has shrunk to one-quarter its original size in one of the 20th century’s worst ecological disasters.

And now, the dollars and cents. Dr. Bill Schillinger at Washington State University recently described camelina’s business model to Capital Press as: “At 1,400 pounds per acre at 16 cents a pound, camelina would bring in $224 per acre; 28-bushel white wheat at $8.23 per bushel would garner $230.”

Central Asia has the land, the farms, the irrigation infrastructure and a modest wage scale in comparison to America or Europe – all that’s missing is the foreign investment. U.S. investors have the cash and access to the expertise of America’s land grant universities. What is certain is that biofuel’s market share will grow over time; less certain is who will reap the benefits of establishing it as a viable concern in Central Asia.

If the recent past is anything to go by it is unlikely to be American and European investors, fixated as they are on Caspian oil and gas.

But while the Japanese flight experiments indicate Asian interest, American investors have the academic expertise, if they are willing to follow the Silk Road into developing a new market. Certainly anything that lessens water usage and pesticides, diversifies crop production and improves the lot of their agrarian population will receive most careful consideration from Central Asia’s governments, and farming and vegetable oil processing plants are not only much cheaper than pipelines, they can be built more quickly.

And jatropha’s biofuel potential? Another story for another time.

Penny stocks are high risk, high reward stock plays. When buying these high risk stocks you must pick the right stock to buy at the right price. If you pick the wrong stock or you time your purchase poorly you will lose some money, maybe all of your investment. On the other hand with the right stock and the right timing you could make a huge profit on a small investment. This is stock trading and all stock trading is unpredictable, this becomes even more apparent in penny stocks. Even with research you will pick wrong some times, limiting the losses and riding the profits will enable you to be successful and limit your overall risk.

1. Its a safer to play the listed penny stocks or the over the counter bulletin board (OTCBB) stocks than the pink sheets. Especially when your just learning. The OTCBB stocks must file with the SEC so there is more information available on the company such as the share structure and financial background. You can also find plenty of low priced stocks trading on the major exchanges such as the nasdaq.

2. Look at a companies history, watch out for reverse splits, look for a long record of trading without manipulating stock price or operating shares. These companies will be safer. There is a lot of fraud in the penny stock market and looking at a companies history will help you weed out some of the bad ones. At first avoid “penny stock picks” especially of new companies, just watch the price you could buy at and outcome. They are not usually a good investment, but may be good for quicker trades once you know what you’re doing.

3. Find out what makes the company valuable, do they have a lot of land, oil, gas or diamond mines. Are they ripe to be acquired by another company, are they making their own acquisitions. Do they have patents on their products or patents pending. What is their reputation in the field. If you live in their area or know someone in that area, go visit the facilities.

4. What are the negatives of a company, what do they owe, what are they’re debts and liabilities? If a company you like has too much debt, when that debt is called they may need to sell shares (dump) into the market to raise the capital. Ideally you want a company with no debt for the time frame you wish to own it.

5. Penny stocks in the areas that are running on the major exchanges are usually a good bet, if oil is strong look for oil penny stocks. Same for gold et al. Emerging markets and fast growing industries are also ideal for investment. Stay on top of the market in general take that knowledge to these low priced stocks. Research what will be hot over next few years and then dig through these low priced companies.

6. Decide how much money you will spend/invest on penny stocks. Just a little bit of money, a small percentage of your portfolio and then don’t go over your budgeted allotment. Always be safe with your money, don’t fall in love with a stock, don’t risk money you don’t want to lose. Often traders will allocate 5-10% of their portfolio to the riskier stocks.

If you visit trading stock sites ensure they are reputable. A lot of sites themselves are paid for by companies looking to promote their stock. The Penny Stock Blog is a site worthy of your time.

China’s completion of an historic natural gas pipeline with Kazakhstan bypassing Russia this week tightens the Asian behemoth’s grip on energy resources needed to fuel a burgeoning economy, a desire also forcing it on a quest for oil and gas wealth in other corners of the globe.

China is not alone in this scramble for energy security. Hungry for oil and gas, world powers like Russia and the United States are also relying on different strategies to grab resource treasures but their efforts have raised questions about conflicts down the road.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration describes China as the second largest energy consumer behind the United States. Taking advantage of the world’s financial crisis, the Asian powerhouse has tapped currency reserves to invest in both Russia and Central Asia, helping to construct power plants and other domestic infrastructure in return for long-term oil and gas supplies, said Ben Montalbano, a senior research analyst at the Washington-based Energy Policy Research Foundation.

Lacking energy reserves, China has been “working hard to lock in” investments in Africa, Central Asia and Venezuela, Montalbano told OilPrice.com. The country has also sought natural gas to satisfy increasing consumption and built many liquefied natural gas receiving terminals over the last year, he added.

“Cut off from African natural resources . . . China’s growth stops,” warned Peter Pham, director of the Africa Project at the New York-based National Committee on American Foreign Policy and an associate professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

This intensive bid for energy, however, has caused friction with the world community. Under an investment strategy in Africa, China “wins over very easily governing elites but doesn’t necessarily win over the populace,” Pham charged.

Chinese state-owned companies tend not to invest in exploration but prefer to offer “inducements,” he said. China’s offer of multibillion-dollar credit facilities to Angola was pivotal for the African nation to get “off the hook” from negotiating with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to meet “serious reform and certain conditions” before the organizations granted such facilities, he argued. China then bought stakes from the Angolan state oil company, he said.

China, moreover, has helped the Khartoum government to evade United Nations sanctions by assisting in the building of at least three weapons factories in Sudan, he said.

Not to be outdone, Russia has returned to Africa in “considerable force” pursuing natural resources in part to recover its “great power status,” said Pham. Russian firms are trying to “lock in partnerships” with resource producers to form, for example, the “stream of a natural gas OPEC,” he said.

Russia holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves and the eighth largest oil reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Next year, its federal budget will be nearly 50 percent derived from oil and gas exports, emphasizing a reliance on gas exports to “feed the budget,” Montalbano of the Energy Policy Research Foundation told OilPrice.com. To some extent, China and Russia have worked together in the oil and gas domain. Earlier this year, China announced a $25-billion loan to Russian firms in return for a 20-year supply of crude oil.

Russia is not the “behemoth of financial reserves” it was two years ago and has a “fairly weak” banking system and industry, Montalbano maintained. While the country is discussing certain projects with Iran and potentially with Iraq, it is mainly concerned with opening up huge Arctic gas fields because its existing fields are declining, he noted.

Russia and other northern countries have increasingly turned to the melting Arctic but the region is “still up for delineation,” said Boyko Nitzov, director of the Eurasia Energy Center at the Atlantic Council in Washington. “The Arctic is still fairly off limits for large-scale production of oil and gas” and difficult to access especially during the winter, Nitzov explained.

For American oil companies, an over-reliance on the Middle East for energy needs has shifted its attention to Africa, a major energy supplier over the last several years edging out the Persian Gulf in energy imports to the United States, Pham explained. U.S. firms tend to forge production-sharing agreements or explore resource development, but lack carte blanche in their pursuit of oil riches in places like Africa due to U.S. government sanctions and public pressure, he said. This puts the United States at “a slight  disadvantage” relative to Russia and China, he added.

Competition for energy assets will probably not lead to open conflict but rather to increasing political tension, predicted Africa expert Pham. Leading African organizations, Europe and the United States never recognized Guinea’s military coup last year, which led to a subsequent massacre of opposition members. Yet China signed a deal with the military junta, risking a perception as a “rogue operator in the single-minded pursuit of resources,” he warned.

Although Russia and China, meanwhile, have both benefited from joint oil and gas investments, making conflict doubtful in the forseeable future, “10, 20 years down the road, who knows,” Montalbano added.