Eurozone Recession to Stay Longer – Russian Economy Ministry

File Photo of Cash, Coins, Line Graph

(RIA Novosti -MOSCOW, June 10, 2013) ­ Eurozone recession is lingering and Europe’s unemployment rate is rising amid a slow global economic recovery, Russia’s Economic Development Ministry said in a monitoring report on Monday.

Russian Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said in late May that recession could hit Russia only if recession developed in the global economy and negative trends remained in the eurozone.

“The macroeconomic picture for the week [from May 31 to June 6] has not shown any significant changes in the world economy’s key trends in 2013. However, some signs show that the global economic recovery is becoming less stable as the world’s recognized growth drivers ­ the US and China ­ are weakening,” the report said.

The latest estimates show that the eurozone’s GDP fell by 0.2 percent in the first three months of this year, quarter on quarter, and by 0.1 percent in the 27 countries of the European Union.

“This corresponds to the primary assessment: Recession is lingering, although weakening,” the report said.

The tense unemployment situation in the eurozone continues to deteriorate, with the unemployment rate reaching 12.2 percent in April. Eurozone retail sales fell by 0.5 percent in April, after a 0.1 percent decline in March. The fastest fall in sales was registered in Finland (3.6 percent), the UK (2 percent), France (0.9 percent), Ireland (0.8 percent) and Germany (0.4 percent), the report said.

“The US [economic] indicators are also becoming less stable, which should allay financial markets’ fears that the Federal Reserve would tighten its monetary policy,” the report said.

Russia Has Largest Shale Oil Reserves ­ EIA Report

MOSCOW, June 11 (RIA Novosti) ­ Russia has the world’s largest identified shale oil resources, with the United States and China second and third, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday, citing data from various published studies.

Russia boasts 75 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil resources, followed by the United States with 58 billion barrels and China with 32 billion barrels, the EIA report says.

Russia’s richest shale oil source is the Bazhenov formation in West Siberia with total reserves estimated at 1.24 trillion barrels, of which only 74.6 billion barrels are currently considered as technical recoverable.

The top ten countries by shale oil reserves also include Argentina (27 billion barrels), Libya (26 billion barrels), Venezuela (13 billion barrels), Mexico (13 billion barrels), Pakistan (9 billion barrels), Canada (9 billion barrels) and Indonesia (8 billion barrels).

Global shale oil resources are estimated at 345 billion barrels, which represents about 10 percent of the world’s recoverable crude oil, the reports says.

Russia ranks only ninth by technically recoverable shale gas reserves with 5.7 trillion cubic meters – the top three countries are China, Argentina and Algeria.

Global shale gas resources are estimated at 145.98 trillion cubic meters or 32 percent of the world’s natural gas technically recoverable resources, the report said.

Currently, only the United States and Canada are producing shale oil and shale gas in commercial quantities.

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