Russian companies will supply about 70 percent of the required oil at market prices for a joint refinery project involving China's CNPC and Russia's Rosneft, China's Energy Minister Zhang Guobao said on Tuesday.

"The issue is resolved following friendly talks," Guobao said after an energy cooperation subcommittee meeting between the two countries.

For 500 years, commodity traders have been trying to conquer the treacherous waters of the Russian Arctic passage – aware of its potential as a lucrative short-cut shipping route.The path is blocked all winter and only smaller cargo vessels manage to navigate through the icebergs for two to three months each summer. But last week, the first commercial supertanker has succeeded in traversing the strait. Carrying 70,000 tonnes of gas from Murmansk in Russia destined for Ningbo in China, the feat has moved the difficult Northern Sea Route a step closer to rivalling the dominant Suez Canal in the south.

China and Russia have agreed to create the first cross border tiger conservation reserve for the rare Siberian tiger along the border, the World Wildlife Organization said. The two countries have agreed to establish a reserve along the Jilin province of China and Primosky in Russia, bordering areas that are home to the Siberian tiger.

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Sunday formally opened the Russian section of an oil pipeline to China, hailing it as an important step in diversifying energy exports away from Europe. The new pipeline is a 64-km spur from the strategic 4,800-km Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline. The first 2,700-km section from Taishet in the Siberian region of Irkutsk east to Skovorodino in the Amur Region was inaugurated by Putin last December. The pipeline, built and operated by state monopoly Transneft, will enable Russia to export crude oil from its new oilfields in Eastern Siberia to the Asian Pacific markets of China, Korea and Japan from its terminal at Kozmina, on the Sea of Japan.

London-listed Petropavlosk plc visited by Medvedev

By John Bonar

A boost to the profile of Petropavlosk plc is expected when London market watchers recognise the unusual endorsement given to the London-listed miner by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when he visited three of the company’s operations in the Far East region of Amur last weekend.

Petropavlovsk has invested heavily in gold and iron ore deposits in the Russian Far East and other regions. Most of its assets have yet to come to production and it is sitting, literally, on a mountain of gold while neighbouring China is clamouring for its iron resources sufficient to enter into government-backed financing for the company.

China Boosts Confidence

China’s decision to move to a more flexible Yuan policy, effectively a revaluation of the currency, has boosted confidence in the global recovery and helped Asia’s markets to start the new week with across the board gains. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index is up 2.0%. Hong Kong is 2.3% better in mid session and Chinese equities are 0.6% better.