While China looks to East and Southeast Asia as major trading partners and sources of investment, it looks to its north and the west for oil and gas to feed its massive appetite for energy. China’s energy consumption is growing at 15% per year, while the rest of the year is near flat. 35% of the increment in the world’s consumption of energy last year was China’s. It has increased massively its import of Saudi oil, but that is not enough. For energy security reasons, exacerbated by its frustration over CNOOC’s experience in trying to purchase Unocal, China is determined to diversify its sources of energy, and Central Asia and Russia figure at the center of these plans.
