China can now import 30 million tons annually (about 600,000 barrels a day) of Russian ESPO crude via pipeline, up from 15 million tons before the second branch opened, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. The two lines run parallel to each other between Mohe at the border and Daqing in northeast Heilongjiang Province, the state media organization said.

Russia pipped Saudi Arabia most of last year as the top crude supplier to China, the world’s biggest buyer. The ESPO system, a key piece of Russia’s efforts to export more energy to Asia, pumps crude directly to China via the two links and to the far eastern Pacific port of Kozmino for seaborne shipments.

The project is intended to deepen energy cooperation between the countries and serve the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, according to Xinhua. Russia also aims to start natural gas sales via the Power of Siberia pipeline by December 2019.

The first link started pumping Russian crude directly to China in 2011 and China National Petroleum Corp. started laying the second line in mid-2016. The country’s biggest oil and gas producer finished installing the 942 kilometer (585 mile) line Aug.

He is working to review solutions and develop plans for short- (until 2019), mid- (until 2021) and long-term (until 2025) to decrease air pollution in Ulaanbaatar for the discussion by the Government this Wednesday. He attended the meeting of the working group in charge of formulating and implementing national program to reduce air and environment pollution, and noted the importance of thermal insulation methods tailored to needs of each household.

Mr.Zandanshatar said that combination of Government actions and proposals sent by individuals, organizations and NGOs will be more effective to reach to targeted groups.

Individuals are seeking their own solutions to counter the problem. One family in Khan Uul district’s 6th khoroo decreased heat loss by properly insulating their house and cut their monthly maintenance costs three times by using electric heaters. Two households of Songinokhairkhan district’s 5th khoroo are using stove “Nuudelchin” (Nomad) invented by Ts.Munkhbaatar and coal consumption is proved to be reduced twofold.

Mr. Zandanshatar also instructed officials to promptly organize a detailed research on moving ger district residents to apartments. Within this framework, the work group was assigned to study possibiilites of putting 40 thousand apartments, currently available on the market, into economic circulation.

In addition, he ordered formulation of a short-term solution to minimize raw coal consumption and to prohibit transport of raw coal to the capital, as informed by the Government Media and Public Relations Department.

Audi says it will roll out the model in Germany, the only country which currently allows such technology. It is ranked level 3 on the scale of vehicle automation, with level 5 being the highest.

In Japan, Nissan Motor plans to launch a model this year that can automatically change lanes on expressways.

The technology is classified as level 2, but it is still more advanced than other automation functions in the same category, such as automated braking.

The Japanese government wants level 3 or higher automated vehicles on roads by 2020, when Tokyo will host the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.

There is growing debate on issues surrounding self-driving technology, such as responsibility in accidents involving automated vehicles.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $60.61 a barrel at 0423 GMT, up 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, after hitting $60.73 earlier in the day, ther highest since June 2015.

Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark, were at $67.12 a barrel, up 25 cents, or 0.4 percent, after hitting a May 2015 high of $67.27 a barrel earlier in the day.

It was the first time since January 2014 that the two crude oil benchmarks opened the year above $60 per barrel.

“Growing unrest in Iran set the table for a bullish start to 2018,” the U.S.-based Schork Report said in a note to clients on Tuesday.

Anti-government protesters demonstrated in Iran on Sunday in defiance of a warning by authorities of a crackdown, extending for a fourth day one of the most audacious challenges to the clerical leadership since pro-reform unrest in 2009.

Even without the unrest in Iran, which is a major oil exporter, market sentiment was bullish.

“Falling inventories globally and strong economic growth offset the restart of the Forties pipeline and the resumption of production following a pipeline outage in Libya,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at futures brokerage Oanda in Singapore.

The 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity Forties pipeline system in the North Sea returned to full operations on Dec. 30 after an unplanned shutdown.

Oil markets have been supported by a year of production cuts led by the Middle East-dominated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia. The cuts started in January 2017 and are scheduled to cover all of 2018.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories have fallen by almost 20 percent from their historic highs last March, to 431.9 million barrels.

Strong demand growth, especially from China, has also been supporting crude.

“We would not be surprised to see a further (oil price) rise,” said Sukrit Vijayakar, director of energy consultancy Trifecta.

Only rising U.S. production, which is on the verge of breaking through 10 million bpd, is somewhat hampering the outlook into 2018.

“The higher prices are expected to stoke U.S. shale output,” O‘Loughlin said.

U.S. oil production C-OUT-T-EIA has risen by almost 16 percent since mid-2016, to 9.75 million bpd at the end of last year.

However, consultancy Rystad Energy said “U.S. crude oil production capacity has reached 10 million barrels per day.”

“Organizing the first ever run-off election was different from other presidential elections in Mongolian political history and the live broadcast of the ballot counting process was an advantage compared to previous presidential elections,” said B.Oyumaa.

During the press conference, journalists asked her and representatives from GEC in attendance about proposed changes to the Law on Elections.

How will the law be changed?

Parliament set up a task force to study the law’s amendment, and GEC has made proposals to the task force. All elections are being carried out under the unified Law on Elections, but GEC proposed to Parliament to separate this law into three different laws (laws on parliamentary, presidential and citizen’s representative councils elections) and Parliament supported this initiative. GEC is focusing on improving the law by putting forward proposals to the task force to eliminate challenges that regularly occurred during previous elections. Other state organizations which are involved with election operations have the right to make proposals to the task force.

What exactly did GEC propose to address the challenges?

As it’s costly to hold a second round of voting due to low voter turnout, GEC put forward a proposal to not require a certain percentage of voter turnout for an election to be considered valid to the task force. GEC also put forward a proposal requiring parliamentary election candidates to be at least 30 years of age.

Why does GEC want to put an age requirement?

This is not a new proposal. Few years ago, GEC put forward a proposal about increasing the age requirement for parliamentarians, but this proposal was not supported by Parliament. This is not only a proposal by GEC, the public asks GEC and Parliament to revisit the minimum requirement age for parliamentary candidates.

Head of IAAC’s Corruption Prevention and Public Awareness Department T.Bayarkhuu noted that most complaints reported this year were about state bureaucracy, abuse of power and conflict of interest, and IAAC reviewed 58 complaints regarding abuse of state officials’ power this month and is currently investigating 66 complaints.
“IAAC uncovered a case where a director of Bayan-Ulgii Province’s public school made a new contract to provide the school with lunch program with his or her associate company, and Amgalan Thermal Power Plant contracted a coal supplier from October 2016 to October 2017 without an open tendering process.”

Some 766 newly-appointed civil servants declared their assets to IAAC this month, and the authority reviewed 627 asset declarations.

The company’s outlook is also based on the fact that during the fiscal year 2017 it produced close to 41 million tonnes of the black mineral. Only in December -the miner says- production reached 5.67 million tonnes, while dispatches were of 5.9 million tonnes and 40.89 million cubic meters of overburden were removed.

In the statement, Chairman and Managing Director N Sridhar is quoted as saying that during the past three years, particularly since the creation of the eastern-central state of Telangana in 2014, the firm has been showing an average growth of 7 per cent.

Sridhar also said that the Singareni Thermal Power Plant stood at 4th position among the power plants in India in December, as it has generated 888.42 Million Units and exported 839.60 Million units to the grid. The goal is to be able to supply of 24 hours power to local communities.

Singareni Collieries is jointly owned by the Government of Telangana and Government of India. According to its website, the company currently operates 18 opencast and 29 underground mines in four districts of Telangana, whose reserves are calculated in 8,791 million tonnes of coal.

On March 7, 2017, the border trade area between China and Mongolia was formally closed and closed for nearly nine months.

Year-end and New Year, the mutual trade zone in Mongolia candy as Erenhot public purchase of selected products.

Li Pengyuan, a local populace, said that the Mongolian merchandise here is very authentic and everyone is reassuring to shop here.

Li Pengyuan also introduced that since the trade zone was closed to traffic, many Mongolian people rushed to the trade zone to purchase Chinese goods.

Erenhot city government sources said that the border residents and the city trade zone, with a total investment of 350 million yuan (RMB, the same below), covers an area of ​​100,000 square meters, the two countries in Mongolia and Mongolia in the inter-city trade zone shopping 8000 yuan can enjoy the following Duty-free shopping policy.

It is reported that since the customs zone was closed, citizens of China and Mongolia have accumulated 20,000 transactions in the zone and the total sales volume of inter-city goods has reached about 20 million yuan.

On the occasion of the 2226th anniversary of the Statehood, 811th anniversary of the Great Mongol Empire, 106th anniversary of the Restoration of National Freedom and Independence, 96th anniversary of the People’s Revolution, 28th anniversary of the Democratic Revolution and the 106th anniversary of inception of modern foreign service in Mongolia, and in recognition of their effort, accomplishment and tangible contributions to realizing diplomatic goals, title ‘Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary’ was presented to a former Ambassador of Mongolia to Germany, Mr Davaadorj Baldorj, the current Ambassador of Mongolia to the Republic of Italy, Mr Jambaldorj Tserendorj, and the Director of the Department for Neighboring Countries, Mr Janabazar Tuvdendorj, and the rank ‘Envoy Extraordinary’ was awarded to the current Ambassador of Mongolia to the Republic of Turkey, Mr Munkh-Ochir Enebish.

The diplomatic ranks were presented by President Kh.Battulga on December 28. Ambassadors B.Davaadorj and T.Janabazar received their awards in person. 

After this, the President congratulated the awardees and wished success in their further career.