Yuri BATALIN President Russian Oil and Gas Construction Union It is imperative for Russia to take advantage of the current favorable conditions on the global energy market in order to fundamentally transform the country's economics, to restore the domestic engineering and high-tech industries, and to develop the enterprises serving the consumer demand efficiently. In recent years, the stability of high oil prices and the growth of the oil and gas production in Russia made it possible to increase substantially both the gold and currency reserves of the country and the size of the stabilization fund. At the same time, the accumulated reserves practically do not contribute to the development of the national economics, whereas the economic growth in the country continues to decline, the competitive capacity of the engineering, стр. 9 processing, and other industries does not improve, and there emerges a risk of failing to achieve the objective of the GDP doubling. The concerns about the short-time character of the high fuel export revenues, voiced by a number of "politicians and economists", are groundless. Forecasts of the leading world experts show that the global oil consumption is to grow rapidly in the years to come, and that by 2020 it will soar to 5.2 billion tons as compared to 3.6 billion tons in 2000. The oil consumption hike in the countries of the Asian-Pacific region will be particularly fast - from 972 million tons in 2001 to 2000 - 2200 million tons in 2020. The oil consumption in China will reach 600 million tons, the domestic production being 170 - 200 million tons. In the US, the oil consumption will rise from 900 billion tons in 2000 to 1200 billion tons in 2020, while the domestic production accounts for 300 -350 million tons of oil. The increase in the consumption of oil and the products of its processing will provide for a sustainable economic development in these countries. The oil-consuming countries get a 8 - 10 times greater economic ef ... Читать далее