Meanwhile, the NOCs have been investing heavily in expanding their refinery capacity away from a dependence on light sweet crude, the mainstay of domestic production, so as to take advantage of a wider range of resource investments around the globe.

LAST year, Petro­China announced its Jidong Nanpu discovery in Bohai Bay, which could be China’s biggest oil find in 50 years, at an estimated 7billion barrels.

Where this will take the country’s energy strategy from here is unclear, but some observers believe China is unlikely to push too aggressively in other areas of possible controversy, such as the widely disputed Spratley Islands (Nansha islands, in Chinese) in the South China Sea, and the Diaoyu (Senkaku, in Japanese) islands, over which it contests ownership with Japan, in the East China Sea.