China's oil venture in Africa

Abstract

Oil has long been viewed as a strategic resource for nations. China is now the world's second largest oil-consuming country after the U.S.. Its global efforts to secure oil imports to meet increasing domestic demand have profound implications for international relations in the Asia-Pacific region. China's rising oil demand and its external quest for oil have thus generated much attention. As China's overseas oil quest intensifies, will China clash with the U.S. and other western countries' interests in Africa, and how dose it look at this rivalry? Will China disrupt the U.S. and its allies' foreign policy and the world order? This article tries to provide an overview of China's initiatives in developing oil in Africa. It examines factors for Chinese oil companies going to Africa and China's oil strategy there. Finally, it argues that even though China's practices of energy diplomacy in Africa seem to undermine U.S. goals of isolating or punishing "rogue states", contrary to those pessimistic views, China has largely accommodated the U.S. and is willing to forge joint efforts with the U.S. in energy exploration in Africa. © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007.