"China will enter a booming age in the petroleum and gas industry in the coming 20 years, with oil and gas output rising from 280 million tons of oil equivalent in 2010 to 450 million tons by 2030."

Peng Qiming, director of the Department of Geological Exploration of the Ministry of Land and Resources, saying that China, the world's biggest energy consumer, will accelerate its domestic oil and gas output.

"We're relatively pessimistic about the economic outlook in two of our three major regions. 2012 just looks tough to me."

Meg Whitman, the new chief executive officer of IT giant Hewlett-Packard Co, telling investors that they need to lower their expectations. Fourth-quarter sales of $32.1 billion (23.9 billion euros) for the company were buoyed by a 9 percent sales increase in the so-called BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China - that partly made up for declines in the United States and Europe.

(China Daily 12/02/2011 page14)