L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...

ing Angola’s large oil resources to overcome its lack of creditworthiness
in the international financial market. 35
While China mainly invests in oil, it also invests in iron ore,
copper, manganese, cobalt, phosphates, platinum, and coal. China's
oil strategy today gambles on Africa. China's oil imports reached 3.5
million barrels a day in 2006, placing the country next to the USA
and Japan as the biggest oil importers. According to IE predictions,
China will be importing oil at the rate of up to 9.8 million barrels
a day by 2030. China will be meeting through export 45 percent
of its energy demand by 2045 and getting ahead of the United States
as the biggest oil importer. 36 African oil accounts for 28 percent of
Chinese oil import. About a quarter of Chinese oil imports from Africa
originate from the Gulf of Guinea countries and Sudan. China's
investments in expanding oil and gas production in Africa amounted
to $4 billion by the end of 2006.
China's main trading partners are mainly oil-producing countries.
The main supplier is Angola that replaced Saudi Arabia as the
leader in the amount of oil delivered to China and became, in April
2008, Africa's leading oil exporter. There is a veritable battle for
Angola's oil between Washington and Beijing. All in all, the United
States has invested in oil production in Angola upward of $4 billion;
however, according to forecasts, China is bound to soon leave the
USA behind to become the biggest buyer of Angolan oil (about 37
percent of Angola's oil export): accounting for 40 percent of Angola's
oil production. The corporation Sinopec has bought a proportion
of shares from Shell in one of Angola's offshore blocks.
Sudan is the second important source of oil for China. While
Sudan is building up production of oil, there is a potential for discovery
of more oil in areas that cannot be currently accessed because
of the conflict in Darfur province. Sudan's oil industry became
monopolized by China, India and Malaysia after the Western investors
left the country. China is getting between 50 percent and 60 percent
of Sudanese oil. For its part, Sudan is meeting 9 percent of Beijing's
oil demand.
Sudan, a former importer of oil, has become with China's aid an
oil exporting country with its own petroleum industry. At the same
45