Transcript

China has become a net oil importer in 1993. Before that, China could self sustain its oil supply and also could export a lot, mainly to Japan and to some other countries. But since the middle of the 1990s, China has got short of oil and it has to import, rely on imports fundamentally to ensure its oil demand. Therefore, its oil companies initially were encouraged to go internationally to find more resources for the country but later on actually more oil companies themselves wanted to be more internationally established. So this is a combination of the government's encouragement and the companies' strategy.