Archive for 3.4 China’s International Oil Relations

China’s Role in the East African Oil and Gas Sector: a New Model of Engagement?

Abstract The oil and gas bonanza currently underway in East African looks set to alter the broader economic and geopolitical landscape of the region. As China continues its quest for energy security, East Africa is becoming an increasingly important region. Both Chinese state and non-state companies have gained a foot-hold in Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya, where they are involved in both upstream and downstream activities. The Chinese presence, while significant, is off-set by a host of Euro-American, Middle Eastern and other Asian companies also involved in exploiting the region’s energy reserves. Infrastructural underdevelopment in the region is forcing Chinese companies to engage on the continent in new ways including the rise of joint Chinese-Euro-American ventures. This trend, in which China and its partners own financial stakes in infrastructure projects located in geo-politically unstable regions, will have future implications regarding security and national sovereignty within the region.
Date 2012 08
Author
Publisher
Link http://www.ccs.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ccs_policy_briefing_8_2012_ra_east_africa_china_oil_and_gas.pdf
Series CCS Policy Briefing, No. 8
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3 Oil & Gas, 3.4 China's International Oil Relations

Pipeline Politics: Comparative Bargaining Capacity in the Sino-Japanese Competition for Siberian Oil

Abstract This article analyzes the relative bargaining capabilities of China and Japan in their drawn-out quest for Siberian oil. We apply an institutional analysis that examines over-time and cross-country variations in government-business relations and elite bureaucratic interests in responding to domestic energy needs and international oil supply options. While one might have expected China’s authoritarian policymaking process to convey an advantage in bilateral negotiations with Moscow, in fact Beijing became bogged down over the ten-year negotiation period with shifting corporate interests of national oil companies, bureaucratic preferences through administrative reform and succession politics, and elite redefinitions of energy security and ways to diversify the sources of imported crude oil. As a result, Beijing faltered in its commitment to Siberian oil. In contrast, the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi exercised executive autonomy to secure a pipeline deal with Russia before seeking a consensus among the divided domestic bureaucratic and corporate interests. Our surprising findings highlight political economic contingencies that shape China’s and Japan’s strategies in addressing fundamental energy needs, with implications for the contentious nature of energy and security cooperation in Northeast Asia.
Date 2012 10
Author Dr. Kun-Chin Lin
Publisher Centre for Rising Powers
Link http://mws.polis.cam.ac.uk/crp/research/workingpapers/pdf/CRP_Working_Paper_6_Pipeline_Politics_Lin_and_Williams.pdf
Series Working Paper #6
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The Burma-China Pipelines: Human Rights Violations, Applicable Law, and Revenue Secrecy

Abstract This briefer provides up-to-date information on the Burma-China gas and oil pipelines. Through firsthand accounts, leaked documents, and publicly available information, EarthRights International analyzes corporate responsibility and accountability with respect to the pipelines, according to international laws and standards, and Burmese law. It discusses how to mitigate harmful impacts and improve the benefits for the people of Burma, and concludes with practical recommendations for key stakeholders.
Date 2011 03
Author
Publisher Earthrights International
Link http://www.earthrights.org/sites/default/files/documents/the-burma-china-pipelines.pdf
Series Situation Briefer No. 1
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3 Oil & Gas, 3.4 China's International Oil Relations

China, Energy and Global Expansion: New Investments in Argentina’s Oil Industry

Abstract  In 2010, thanks to the recent investments, China was the first investor and second commercial partner of Argentina. Even though there were numerous investments –mining, manufactures, services, agribusiness, etc.-, one highlighted over the others; the 50% acquisition of Bridas by CNOOC. Bridas belonged to the Argentinean family Bulgheroni and along British Petroleum controlled an important company, considering that the country is a low hydrocarbon producer, Pan American Energy.
Date 2011 07
Author
Publisher Observatorio Petrolero Sur
Link http://www.opsur.org.ar/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/chinese-investments-in-argentina_s-oil-industry.pdf
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Inversiones Chinas en Argentina: Claves del Nuevo Escenario Energético (Spanish Language Article)

Date 2011 08
Author
Publisher Observatorio Petrolero Sur
Link http://www.opsur.org.ar/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/inversiones-chinas-en-hidrocarburos.pdf
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Obama’s Risky Oil Threat to China

Abstract When it comes to China policy, is the Obama administration leaping from the frying pan directly into the fire? In an attempt to turn the page on two disastrous wars in the Greater Middle East, it may have just launched a new Cold War in Asia — once again, viewing oil as the key to global supremacy. For decades, the United States has been heavily dependent on imported oil, much of it obtained from the Middle East and Africa, while China was largely self-sufficient in oil output. In 2001, the United States consumed 19.6 million barrels of oil per day, while producing only nine million barrels itself. The dependency on foreign suppliers for that 10.6 million-barrel shortfall proved a source of enormous concern for Washington policymakers. They responded by forging ever closer, more militarized ties with Middle Eastern oil producers and going to war on occasion to ensure the safety of U.S. supply lines. In 2001, China, on the other hand, consumed only five million barrels per day and so, with a domestic output of 3.3 million barrels, needed to import only 1.7 million barrels. Those cold, hard numbers made its leadership far less concerned about the reliability of the country’s major overseas providers — and so it did not need to duplicate the same sort of foreign policy entanglements that Washington had long been involved in. Now, so the Obama administration has concluded, the tables are beginning to turn.
Date 2011 12 07
Author Michael T. Klare
Publisher
Link http://www.zcommunications.org/obama-s-risky-oil-threat-to-china-by-michael-t-klare
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3 Oil & Gas, 3.4 China's International Oil Relations

China’s Global Shopping Spree: Is the World’s Future Resource Map Tilting East?

Abstract Think of it as a tale of two countries.  When it comes to procuring the resources that make industrial societies run, China is now the shopaholic of planet Earth, while the United States is staying at home.  Hard-hit by the global recession, the United States has experienced a marked decline in the consumption of oil and other key industrial materials.  Not so China.  With the recession’s crippling effects expected to linger in the U.S. for many years, analysts foresee a slow recovery when it comes to resource consumption.  Not so China. In fact, the Chinese are already experiencing a sharp increase in the use of oil and other commodities.  More than that, anticipating the kind of voracious resource consumption that goes with anticipated future growth, and worried about the availability of adequate supplies, giant Chinese energy and manufacturing firms — many of them state-owned — have been on a veritable spending binge when it comes to locking down resource supplies for the twenty-first century.  They have acquired oil fields, natural gas reserves, mines, pipelines, refineries, and other resource assets in a global buying spree of almost unprecedented proportions.
Date 2010 04 05
Author Michael T. Klare
Publisher
Link http://www.zcommunications.org/chinas-global-shopping-spree-by-michael-t-klare
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    China in Burma: Increasing Investments of Chinese MNCs in Burma’s Hydropower, Oil & Natural Gas, and Mining Sectors

    Abstract This survey reveals a rapidly increasing number of Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) involved in hydropower, oil and natural gas, and mining projects in Burma. The report identifies that at least 45 Chinese companies have been involved in approximately 63 hydropower projects in Burma. The report raises concerns about the lack of public information about these projects as well as the potential social and environmental impacts given the current situation in Burma.
    Date 2008 09
    Author
    Publisher EarthRights International
    Link http://archive-2011.resources.revenuewatch.org/sites/default/files/Earth%20Rights-China%20in%20Burma.pdf
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    China’s Intentions for Russian and Central Asian Oil and Gas

    Abstract Dr. Gaye Christoffersen, president of Asia Pacific Research Associates, examines China’s political, economic, and security intentions for Russian and Central Asian oil and gas reserves and analyzes the implications of Sino-Kazak and Sino-Russian oil cooperation. Dr. Christoffersen points out that China’s increased influence in Russia and Central Asia raises a number of challenges for policymakers, including: lack of transparency in the bidding process; the potential exclusion of meaningful U.S. involvement; and a possible military component to petroleum agreements. Nevertheless, she concludes that pipelines to China from Central Asia and Russia would help to diversify Northeast Asian energy supply, reducing the region’s dependence on supplies from the Middle East, helping to meet the growing demand for resources, and offering Western companies alternative routes to transport their oil and gas from the former Soviet Union.
    Date 1998
    Author Gaye Christoffersen
    Publisher The National Bureau of Asian Research
    Link http://www.nbr.org/publications/analysis/pdf/vol9no2.pdf
    Series Analysis V9 N2
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