Oil prices are soaring. In June 2002, the main New York oil futures price stood at $24.29 a barrel, jumping to $43.91 on January 4, 2006 and $78.4 on July 14.

People hold their breath as the $80 mark approaches and are surprised that crude prices have increased 3.2 fold in just four years! There are even expectations by those familiar with the oil industry that the price will rocket to $105 a barrel. Explosive oil prices have become heavy burdens on oil-consuming countries, and a continuous price increase may result in cost-driven inflation in these countries, posing a threat to the soundness of the world economy.

As an important part of economic security, the energy issue has now been listed on the agenda of governments of countries around the world. Why do oil prices keep going up? The most popular explanation is that the world's oil resources can only support 40 years' consumption. It's true that from the point of view of history, fossil fuels, oil included, cannot sustain human development for much longer and so people should begin making contingencies.

Nevertheless, statistics issued by British Petroleum show that the world's verified oil reserves have risen from 72.94 billion tons in 1971 to 156.7 billion tons in 2003, with the reserve-production ratio rising from 28.3 years to 41 years. That is to say, newly discovered oil reserves outpace oil consumption. More new oilfields are expected to emerge. Therefore, secured oil supplies are possible in the coming 10 to 20 years, so it's unreasonable for oil prices to soar now.

The fundamental reason for the climbing oil prices lies in the irrational geographical distribution of oil reserves and Western countries' monopoly over oil resources. Oilfields are mainly situated in a small number of countries in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America and also in Russia and Central Asia. For years, relying on their capital, technological and military strength, the world's major energy consumers are monopolizing the production, pricing (sales), transportation and processing of oil. Further economic globalization and emerging developing countries are leading to profound adjustment in world industrial structure and also in the energy consumption structure. In order to keep their vested interests, however, Western powers are trying to maintain their monopoly over oil resources. Both the Gulf War in the early 1990s and the Iraq war launched by the United States in 2003 to reshape the Middle East can be classified as "oil war."

The current Iranian nuclear issue is not a mere matter of nuclear non-proliferation, but is deeply related to its oil resources and even oil reserves in the whole region. In order to weaken Russia's influence over the oil issue, Western countries have invested large amounts of money to build the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, so that oil can be transported directly from the Caspian Sea region and the Central Asia to Europe, without going through Russia. Western countries continue to ask developing countries that are recently exposed to the economic globalization to open their commodity, capital and resources markets, while their own markets are always shut to developing and transition economies. Big countries' struggles over oil are actually attempts to maintain their monopoly over oil reserves. This represents an outdated security concept that can do nothing but result in soaring oil prices and international conflicts.

As the host of this year's G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia put forward a new concept of "energy security" and promoted the adoption of the St. Petersburg Energy Security Action Plan. It is generally agreed in the plan that in order to ensure the transparency, predictability and stability of the global energy market, it's necessary to supply energy in a long-term, reliable and environment-friendly way at a price that both oil producers and consumers can accept. More efforts are called for to push forward the energy-saving plan and develop alternative energy sources, so as to achieve a balanced and stable energy security.

The action plan also urges G-8 countries and the international community to carry out intensive cooperation in developing new technologies to lay a solid technological foundation for future energy security and for higher energy efficiency.  Although the consensus among these countries can be seen as a progress, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said, "Russia wants to achieve security of demand, but the others in the group want security of supply." As Western countries and Russia have different understandings of energy security and their strategic objectives vary, it's skeptical whether the consensus can really be put into practice.

In the Outreach Session of the G8 Summit in July, Chinese President Hu Jintao expounded China's stance on energy security. "To ensure global energy security, we need to develop and implement a new energy security concept that calls for mutually beneficial cooperation, diversified forms of development and common energy security through coordination," he said.  For the abovementioned purpose, President Hu proposed that the international community should make efforts in three aspects: to strengthen policy coordination and improve mechanisms for monitoring the international energy market and responding to energy emergencies and to maintain a sound political climate favorable to energy security and stability. 

The president especially stressed, "All countries should try to solve differences and conflicts through dialogue and coordination, instead of politicizing energy issues. Less countries should willfully resort to force in tackling energy issues." All this indicates that to achieve global energy security, countries need to abandon monopoly and hegemony to achieve win-win cooperation between energy producers and consumers.  Deviating from purely technical viewpoints, academic analysis on supply and demand and also struggles among powers, China's new energy security concept features cooperation for mutual benefit in energy development and utilization, the establishment of a system for R&D and extension of advanced energy technologies and the creation of a sound political climate favorable to energy security and stability, thus indicating the direction for global energy security and the final resolution of the energy issue.

A highlight in the G-8 summit and its outreach session, China's new energy security concept receives active response from Russia, India, the United States, France, and other EU countries. On August 4, Katharine Ann Fredriksen, US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy, said at a Senate hearing that the United States and China are faced with similar energy challenges, so to strengthen cooperation in the field of energy is in the interests of both countries and conducive to world energy stability.  Initial progresses show that once the new energy security concept is widely recognized by all countries, it will guide the countries from energy scramble to energy cooperation. The transformation will become a strong driving force for democracy in international relations, world multipolarization and the building of a harmonious world, which is the historical significance of China's new energy security concept.

(China.org.cn)