Don’t expect China to be ethical on oil – until the US is

This week’s Dollars 4.18bn (Pounds 2.3bn) bid by state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) for PetroKazakhstan, the Canada-based central Asian oil group, helps to illustrate two important truths about the world energy business today.

First, China’s eagerness to buy access to foreign oil and gas for its growing economy has not been in any way diminished by the failure of CNOOC’s financially and politically more ambitious bid for Unocal of the US. Second, Washington has yet to come to terms with China’s emergence as a big energy importer in competition with the US and other consumers.

Sudan Tribune