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Hu Jintao, miner of black gold
By Philippe Massonnet
AFP
BEIJING
Petroleumworld.com 04 30 06
In one week in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Kenya, Chinese President Hu Jintao mounted all-out and unabashed "petroleum diplomacy" aimed at quenching his nation's growing thirst for oil.
Flush with the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, Hu reaffirmed that those who help China acquire the black gold needed to drive his country's booming economy would be rewarded both politically and commercially.
"Hu Jintao must consolidate the supply of oil for China's developing economy -- he has to do that, it's an obligation on his part," said Garth Shelton, a specialist on China's external affairs at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
In Riyadh, Hu sought the help of the world's biggest exporter of crude, seeking 100 million barrels of oil -- or about 10 days of Saudi production -- to build China's long hoped-for strategic reserve.
As the second largest oil consumer in the world after the United States, China needs a strategic reserve to help cushion any unforseen event in the world's volatile energy markets.
With oil prices continuously rising, the pressure is increasing on Beijing to build a reserve to maintain its 6.4 million barrels a day consumption.
Furthermore, with China's economy booming at 10.2 percent growth in the first quarter, oil consumption is expected to grow by 6.0 percent in 2006.
So to help ease his country's appetite for crude, it was not surprising that Hu oversaw the inking of another petroleum agreement during his visit to Nigeria, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
China is hoping to secure four licenses to exploit oil fields in southern Nigeria in exchange for investment into a refinery in Kaduna, in the country's north.
These are not the first oil agreements between the two countries. In recent months, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation bought 45 percent of part of an offshore Nigerian oil concession for 2.7 billion dollars.
"Nigeria likes to do business with China because it knows that China will not interfere in its internal affairs like the United States will," said He Jun, an oil analyst for Anbound Consulting.
"The only thing that China wants is oil."
On Friday, Hu spent the 10th day of a trip that started in the United States and also included Morocco, striking an offshore exploration agreement in Kenya.
China has made no mystery of its strategy, especially as it has seen oil imports grow from 27 percent of its overall consumption in 1999 to 45 percent at present.
On Friday, the official China Daily characterized China's growing oil dependency in glowing "win-win" terms, saying, "on one hand, China's booming economy will mean development opportunities for Africa.
"On the other hand, Africa can translate its advantages to competitive strength by providing China with energy supplies and a market for its goods."
The quest of the Asian giant for oil and gas does not stop in the Middle East or Africa, but has also targeted energy reserves in Central Asia and Latin America.
"If China consumes on average as much oil as the United States, then it will be necessary to double annual world production and we will have to find another planet," warned one Western petroleum expert working in Beijing.
China does not use diplomacy to ensure a supply of oil, but uses its thirst for energy to spread influence and "make friends," the oil expert said.
"It is a symbolic act to sign a strategic deal, which allows you to develop friendship, but as far as petroleum is concerned this is first and foremost a market," he said on condition of anonymity.
AFP 30 04 06 0319 GMT
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