US raises concern over China oil policy

The US has expressed concern to Chinese officials about Beijing’s attempts to buy up global oil reserves for the long term.

“We are pursuing intensive dialogue with the Chinese on the subject of energy security, in which we have raised our concerns about Chinese efforts to lock up oil reserves with long-term contracts,” David Shear, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told the House Armed Services Committee yesterday.

“We will continue to engage them on this subject at very senior levels,” he told the panel, which was holding a hearing on recent security developments in China.

Shear was responding to questions by Republican Roscoe Bartlett, who said he was worried that the Chinese were “aggressively buying up oil all over the world” and might not share it with other countries in the future.

Upstream Online