Official warns vs any efforts to 'starve' China of energy
NEW ORLEANS (MarketWatch) -- Efforts to blame the spike in oil prices on
growth in Chinese consumption are "unreasonable and untenable," a Chinese
oil official said Tuesday, warning against any effort to limit the growing
country's access to energy.
"To spread the 'China threat' and try to curb China's progress and starve
its energy needs is not in the interest of world stability and development,"
Zhang Guobao, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform
Commission, said in prepared remarks at a U.S.-China oil and gas conference
in New Orleans. "Such attempts are doomed to fail."
The NDRC is an agency of China's State Council charged with developing
national economic strategies. China had an oil trade deficit of more than
$30 billion last year, a level Zhang called "unbearable."
The comments come as the U.S. has grown increasing concerned about China's
pursuit for energy resources, punctuated by Chinese oil exploration company
Cnooc Ltd.'s (0883.HK) $18.5 billion bid for U.S. company Unocal Corp.
(UCL). China has actively sought access to resources even in traditional
U.S. suppliers like Venezuela and Canada.
An official with the Department of Energy, speaking at the same conference,
warned that the U.S. and China aren't cooperating enough.
"Today, we appear to be competing more than we are partnering," said Mark
Maddox, principal deputy assistant secretary for fossil energy at the DOE.
"We believe there is much to be gained when giants join hands."
Protectionism is rising on the popular level as well as in Washington,
Maddox warned, but said U.S. President George W. Bush is committed to
"engagement and innovation rather than retrenchment and isolation."
Almost immediately after Maddox spoke, U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas
Republican and head of the House Energy and Commerce Commission, wrote to
Bush calling Cnooc's bid for Unocal "a clear threat to the energy and
national security of the United States."
Energy analysts generally do attribute much of the upward pressure on oil
prices to growth in demand in China, which along with U.S. consumption has
pushed producers and refiners near their limits.
Zhang, however, said U.S. citizens consume far more than China per capita
each year. |
