• China is the world’s most populous country with a fast-growing economy that has led it to be the largest energy consumer and producer in the world. Rapidly increasing energy demand, especially for petroleum and other liquids, has made China influential in world energy markets.
• China is the world’s second-largest consumer of oil and moved from second-largest net importer of oil to the largest in 2014.
• China’s national oil companies dominate the oil and natural gas upstream and downstream sectors, although the government has granted international oil companies more access to technically challenging onshore and deepwater offshore fields. China revised its oil price reform legislation in 2013 to further reflect international oil prices in the country’s domestic demand.
• China’s largest oil fields are mature, and production has peaked, leading companies to invest in techniques to sustain oil flows at the mature fields, while also focusing on developing largely untapped reserves in the western interior provinces and offshore fields.
• China’s national oil companies have rapidly expanded their purchases of international oil and natural gas assets since 2008 through direct acquisitions of equity and financial loans in exchange for oil supplies in order to secure more oil and gas supplies, make long-term commercial investments, and gain technical expertise in more challenging oil and natural gas plays.”

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