Asian Drivers
The Fact and Fiction of Sino-African Energy Relations
By Erica S. Downs
The expanding footprint in Africa of China’s
national oil companies (NOCs) lies at the heart of concerns of many
policy-makers and pundits in the United States and Europe. China’s
deepening engagement with Africa is viewed as an erosion of their own
interests and influence on the continent. The conventional wisdom about
China’s NOCs in Africa has two parts. It sees the companies prevailing
in the competition to gain access to African oil as part of a
highly-coordinated
government strategy to ensure that China’s burgeoning demand for
oil is satisfied. Moreover, it is alleged that this strategy does more
than just secure oil for Chinese markets – it also undermines American
and European efforts to maintain a level playing field for foreign
investors, promote good governance and punish regimes that egregiously
violate human rights.
This article examines a number of widely accepted “facts” about
the growing involvement of China’s NOCs in Africa. While some of these
have some validity, others simply do not. Contrary to public opinion,
China’s NOCs are not “locking up” the lion’s share of African oil as
part of a centralized quest for energy. In
addition, the extent to which the Chinese NOCs’ involvement in
the African oil
patch has contributed to the erosion of the “rules of the game” –
established by
Western governments and international financial institutions for
foreign investment, foreign aid and human rights – may be exaggerated
in some cases. Discerning
fact from fi ction within the discourse about Sino-African
energy relations is
important in order to understand the activities of China’s NOCs
in Africa as well
as to inform policy-making in Washington, D.C. and other world
capitals.
- Development Studies Association launches ‘China and Development’ Study Group
- Giles Mohan and Raphie Kaplinsky speak at Development Studies Association meeting on China
- Raphael Kaplinsky and Masuma Farooki participated in the SOAS International Workshop
- China's global economic expansion on Latin America
- Giles Mohan gets ESRC grant to study Chinese migrants in Africa
- Giles Mohan organises China-Ghana workshop in Accra
- Welcome to Visiting Fellow Dr Basile Ndjio
- Meeting of Three Worlds, Written by Pamela Whitby for BBC Focus on Africa magazine
- Africa’s Cooperation with New and Emerging Development Partners: Options for Africa’s Development