The number speaks for themselves, one out of five world inhabitants is a Chinese. Today China is the second largest consumer of oil, just after the United states, but have the highest growth in the planet. Its energy needs are increasing seven times faster, while its reserves is seven times depleting. China is unable to produce the oil that he needs of today, and need to import half of it. In the next three years these numbers will increase by 2/3, if not its whole economy will collapse. It is imperative to find new countries to provide oil to China. To secure these supplies in this increasingly unstable world. On their crusade of the black gold, China is already in a direct conflict with the greatest consumer of the world's oil, the United States. The battle for oil has began.
The face of Chinese capital reflects the country's profound economic changes. In the last 20 years the number of cars in the country has been multiplied by 90. At this rate in 2030 China would produce more cars than the United States. With such growth a country which is not yet organized to face its needs, energy shortages are frequent. Electricity blackouts are common and petrol stocks disrupted the daily lives and running companies. Taxi drivers have a long grown custom to queue up early morning to a gas station. To begin their work at eight o'clock they should begin to queue at six.
CNPC building
As a military wing to the Chinese state, three major oil companies are created with the target of providing the country's sufficient financial cloud to penetrate the international oil market. The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China Petrochemical Corporation, and the largest among them is the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). All together these companies employed tens of thousands of people across the globe and hundreds of traders in London, New York and Singapore markets to acquire the astronomic quantities needed by the country.
Forced to find external sources, China had lunched a world conquest for oil . Every country that has oil resources are in it's line of fire, and in the front row is the continent of Africa. Nearly 10% of the world's oil production comes from the African continent, but above all it is there where the latest discoveries had been made. China's president went to every corner of Africa to search for a new contract and carries what it takes to temp the continent leaders. Chinese companies are now very active in Africa. In addition from the oil deals they also promised to build infrastructures ( railroads, port, roads etc) just to close the deals, which other western companies such as TOTAL or BP cannot do. In reality, companies that are multi national which are transparent and that abide the law found themselves playing a very different enemy, against company that plays to a very different set of rules, as a result they lost every deal.
The country of Chad which entered the club of oil production four years ago is one of the playing ground for the rivalry between the two empires (China and United States). With the rise of oil barrel cost the country enjoyed a vast profit wind fall, only a billion dollars profit for a year (none of less the population remains the poorest in the planet). A consortium of western companies primarily American exploits the countries subterrain oil reserves.
But now China making its present felt. Contract recently signed between Chad and China featured the increasingly familiar bonuses of major projects and road building. But China offers another advantages which their western competitors cannot match. The absolute guarantee of no interference of its internal political affairs . The aid office of western world, the World Bank is tied in some certain requirements including respect of transparency and democracy or the use of oil revenue to alleviate poverty before a country can have the financial loan. But China operates different strategies, loan and infrastructure projects came without tradeoffs and come in a highly competitive rates.
The Chinese have a form of cooperation they call it win-win. It means mutually advantageous without conditions and respecting states sovereignty, As for western countries obviously, it's linked to political conditions and demands for good governance. As a result a large part of Chad's oil is now flowing to China. CNPC has been prospecting a large scale oil mining in the west of Chad, but in reality there are no signs that the local population of Chad are benefiting from the promise of China. Even this country is surrounded by oil wells and crisscrossed with oil pipelines the country remain the poorest in the world.
