Article

China Seals Oil Deals

Map of China’s Major Overseas Oil Deals

China’s international oil deals in recent years could secure the country 7.8 billion barrels of oil, many of which will come from potentially dangerous regimes.

China’s oil demand is projected to grow by 80 percent between 2010 and 2030 due to its rapidly developing economy and in particular its growing middle class and exploding auto market.

China’s largest national, government-owned oil companies—CNPC, CNOOC, and Sinopec—have taken aggressive action over the last several years to secure oil abroad in an effort to cope with this growth and a looming global oil crunch. China’s recent overseas oil deals have the potential to deliver more than 7.8 billion barrels of oil to the country over the next several years.

This figure shows some of China’s largest, most recent oil deals, with a focus on 2009 and 2010 contracts. Highlighted among those are countries currently on the U.S. Department of State’s travel warning list for “dangerous or unstable” nations.

China's major overseas oil deals

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Citations

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5. Will Grant, “China in huge Venezuela oil deal,” BBC News, September 17, 2009, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8260200.stm.

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9. CNOOC Limited, “CNOOC Acquires 45 % Stake in OML 130 Offshore Nigeria,” Rigzone, January 9, 2006, available at http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=28369.

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11. Sameera Anand, “China’s CNOOC and Sinopec Pay $1.3 Billion for Angola Oil,” Bloomberg Businessweek, July 20, 2009, available at http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2009/gb20090720_097528.htm.

12. V. Phani Kumar, “Cnooc, Sinopec shares up on Angola stake buy,” Market Watch, July 29, 2009, available at http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cnooc-sinopec-shares-up-on-angola-field-stake-buy (last accessed April 2010).

13. PBS NewsHour, “China-Sudan Trade Relations Complicate Darfur Crisis,” April 25, 2006, available at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/china-darfur_04-25-06.html.

14. Guy Chazan and Shai Oster, “Sinopec Pact For Addax Boosts China’s Buying Binge,” The Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2009, available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124584068908746803.html.

15. BBC News, “Iraq in third overseas oil deal,” November 5, 2009, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8344067.stm.

16. BP, “BP and CNPC to Develop Iraq’s Super-Giant Rumaila Field,” Press release, November 3, 2009, available at http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7057650 (last accessed April 2010).

17. SOCO International, “Sinochem to Buy SOCO Yemen for $465M,” Rigzone, February 4, 2008, available at http://www.rigzone.com/NEWS/article.asp?a_id=56202.

18. The World Tribune, “Iraq awards China major oil deal near Iran border,” March 11, 2010, available at http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2010/me_oil0191_03_10.asp.

19. RIA Novosti, “Iran, China sign $1.76 bln contract to develop Iranian oil field,” January 15, 2009, available at http://en.rian.ru/world/20090115/119506131.html.

20. David Barboza, “China Starts Investing Globally,” The New York Times, February 20, 2009, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/business/worldbusiness/21yuan.html?_r=1.

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