China does another big energy deal in the global fight for resources
blogs.telegraph.co.uk
By Adrian Michaels World / June 10th, 2010
Will there be any oil and gas left for the West by the time the Chinese have finished buying it all up? Richard Orange, our correspondent in Central Asia, alerts us to this announcement that China is buying another 10 billion cubic metres of gas a year from Uzbekistan. (He’s filing shortly and I’ll link to that when it’s in.)
To put that in perspective, and if you’re feeling a bit Nerdy Thursday, have a look at this table of gas consumption by country. The Uzbekistan deal represents one seventh of China’s entire 2007 consumption. China’s gas and oil needs are continuing to rise steeply: the country’s energy needs have gone up about 4-5 times since 1978 and demand for oil is set to double between 2005 and 2030. So it is seeking new alliances and new suppliers, constantly. A Forbes blog recently said that in the last 18 months, China had signed loan-for-oil agreements worth more than $60 billion with Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Brazil and Venezuela, among other countries.
Aside from being staggering in its scale, these ventures give us cause for worry. China is competing with the West over finite resources, and Central Asia is one of the key battlegrounds. That the region is not known for its adherence to Western democratic values, doesn’t seem to be bothering the Chinese. They are focused on their energy needs in coming decades. |
