Sino-African vs. Sino-U.S. Energy Relations

An article accessed at: http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/198-natural-resources/40248.html states:

China currently derives 25% of its oil imports from Africa, with interests in Algeria, Angola, Chad and Sudan and increasing stakes in Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Nigeria.

China's growing energy partnership with Sudan represents one of a number of areas where Sino-U.S. energy interests diverge in Africa. China National Petroleum Corporation established oil exploration rights in Sudan in 1995. Two years later when Washington cut ties with Sudan, China filled the vacuum making Sudan China's largest overseas production base. More than half of Sudan's oil exports go to China, accounting for five percent of China's total oil imports. C.N.P.C. owns a 40 percent stake in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company and pumps over 300,000 barrels per day in Sudan. Another Chinese firm, Sinopec, is constructing a 1500 kilometer (932 miles) pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where China's Petroleum Engineering Construction Group is building a tanker terminal.

In recent years China's political, economic and military relations with Africa have been subordinated to its quest to secure energy resources in the African continent as energy resources are being secured in exchange for aid, arms or infrastructure investment. China's relations with Africa have shifted from holding a strong ideological bias in support of communist regimes and Marxist insurgencies to being led by market and resource considerations.African states are drawn to China by its non-ideological, non-interventionist approach, which contrasts with the Western approach that places an emphasis on democracy, governance, human rights and humanitarian intervention.

With Sudan and Iran together supplying China with 20 percent of its oil imports, U.S. attempts to contain these regimes bring it into direct confrontation with China's energy security policies.

The United States and China are not the only states vying for energy resources in Africa. Recently, Korea National Oil Corporation obtained 65 percent oil and gas production rights in two Nigerian offshore blocks, while India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Videsh obtained a 25 percent stake. South Korea and India are the world's fourth and sixth largest energy consumers respectively. India and China both hold stakes in the Greater Nile Oil Project in Sudan with India having invested US$700 million in Sudan's oil sector. China and India have also been engaged in direct competition for African energy resources, as seen in October 2004 when China outbid India to buy an interest in an offshore block in Angola. [See: "Economic Brief: China's Energy Acquisitions"]

While there have been gestures of rapprochement in Sino-U.S. relations such as the recently initiated Sino-U.S. Strategic Dialogue and both states along with India, Australia, Japan and South Korea establishing an energy partnership known as the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development, the competition to secure energy resources on the world stage could fuel their already shaky relationship. The recent failed bid by Chinese energy company China National Offshore Oil Corporation to acquire U.S. energy company Unocal is evidence of this. Facing a plethora of internal crises ranging from poverty to poor governance and civil war, Africa is likely to emerge as a volatile stage of Sino-U.S. energy competition. African states have been drawn to China by its non-interventionist, non-ideological approach in conducting relations, although China's attempts to secure energy resources in conflict-ridden states by offering aid or arms-for-oil could heighten instability in the region.