South Sudan/Sudan: China Reviewing Oil Relationships with Sudan, South Sudan, Researcher Says

Oct 21, 2014 | Nick Snow, Oil & Gas Journal
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The Chinese government and China National Petroleum Corp. are reviewing their relationships with Sudan and South Sudan following years of growth that changed both sides, a researcher said at Johns Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies.

“Sudan was a launching pad for CNPC to become a global corporation through financial and resource benefits,” said Luke Patey, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies and author of “The New Kings of Crude: China, Oil, and Civil War in Sudan and South Sudan.”

“For much of the 2000s, CNPC took 40% of its oil from Sudan through subsidiaries as well as through the main subsidiary,” Patey said during an Oct. 20 event hosted by the SAIS China-Africa Research Initiative. “Things started to go bad for CNPC when the two Sudans signed a comprehensive peace agreement. There now was less, not more, security where local groups targeted Chinese workers.”