The overseas acquisitions and equity oil shares of Chinese national oil companies: A threat to the West but a boost to Chinaʹs energy security?

This paper argues that both China and the Western countries need to de-politicize Chinaʹs global quest for energy security. The Western politicians need to recognize that their rhetoric in relation to Chinaʹs efforts to secure energy supplies overseas has done nothing but intensify Chinaʹs fear that they might seek to deny Chinaʹs access to the oil it needs for the development. China needs to reconsider its stance of distrusting global oil markets and to recognize that the reliance on aggressive acquisitions of overseas oil fields and equity oil production has been of little help in strengthening its energy security. Given that Chinaʹs energy security depends increasingly and deeply on the stability of global oil markets and reliable and growing oil supplies to the market, China shares with other major oil importing countries profound common interests in maintaining and strengthening the stability of global oil markets and reducing the chance of potential disruptions to oil supply and the resulting damaging oil price shocks.