The story of China’s energy sector over the last few years has really been two stories. On the one hand, commercialisation, investment and the application of better technologies have resulted in a massive growth of the capacity of the sector to deliver energy to where it is needed and in a substantial … Continue Reading ››
To be cash-rich in a cash-poor, low-price world, is a huge advantage. China has realised this, and is taking advantage of its relative strength in the extractive industries. As discussed in last month’s column, its government has been making generous loans and its companies have been making aggressive bids for corporate assets around the world. … Continue Reading ››
In response to the question “Why do you rob banks?”, the U.S. bank robber, Willie Sutton, is reputed to have answered “Because that’s where the money is”. In the same way cash-poor, resource-rich countries and resource companies are today turning to China, because that’s where … Continue Reading ››
The energy relationship between China and Russia is increasingly becoming a “spectator sport” in the sense that spectators gain more interest from the relationship than the parties themselves. Despite more than ten years of rhetoric from both sides about the need and desirability for collaboration … Continue Reading ››
After fifteen years of debate, China’s government decided in December 2008 to raise significantly the taxes on oil products. The increases came into effect on 1st January 2009 and apply to the full range of oil products from lubricant oil and fuel oil, to jet kerosene and … Continue Reading ››
I had to think twice before writing the title for this piece. I wrote the words ‘low oil prices’, and then realised that what we call ‘low’ today would have been considered ‘high’ just five years ago, and almost ‘very high’ ten years ago when the annual average price for Brent crude oil (from … Continue Reading ››
Reading the tea leaves of China’s economic and energy policy rhetoric is never easy, but early November has seen an unusually high degree of apparent internal contradiction. On 7th and 8th November, the UN held a high level meeting in Beijing on technology development and technology transfer … Continue Reading ››
The regular reader of this column may be surprised to see me using almost the same heading as I used five months ago. Why am I using it? Because once again the world is looking to China to gain some insight into the direction of oil demand and oil prices. In that column I … Continue Reading ››