Research On The Location Selection Of Chinese Oil Companies' Foreign Direct Investment Under The Background Of The Belt And Road Initiative

In recent years,with the sustained and rapid economic development,China has become the world’s major exporter of foreign investment,the world’s largest oil importer and the most important oil producer and consumer.Given China’s essential influence on the world economy and as a major driving force of the World oil pattern reform,in the background of the reconstruction of global governance structure brought about by the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative,there are rare systematic analysis on the location selection of Chinese enterprises’ external investment,let alone the specific discussion on external direct investment location selection of Chinese petroleum enterprises.The investment and cooperation in the oil field is the key to the Belt and Road Initiative.Countries with abundant oil resources are increasingly attractive to Chinese petroleum companies.There are great risks from the uncertainty of the policies and geological prospects.Thus in accordance with practical condition in the countries along the Road,a comprehensive and systematic analysis on the external investment location selection is a necessity and has theoretical and practical significance,Therefore,This paper makes a systematic study of this problem from both theoretical and empirical aspects.In terms of theoretical research,on the basis of literature review and theoretical analysis of location selection,and combined with the characteristics of Chinese oil companies,this paper mainly does the following two aspects.(1).In this dissertation,the transformation mechanism of the country specific advantages to the enterprise comprehensive advantages were analyzed.Foreign direct investment of Chinese petroleum enterprises is carried out on the basis of the consistency of national interests and interests of petroleum enterprises.Chinese petroleum enterprises are the subject of investment behavior,and their comprehensive advantages in foreign investment cooperation are formed through the following three ways.First,the foreign direct investment domestic policies and services directly affect the ownership advantages of enterprises.Second,the foreign direct investment international policies and services that directly affect the internalization advantages of enterprises;Third,the domestic economic and industrial environment that indirectly affects the ability of enterprises to invest abroad.Comprehensive advantages determine the motivation and ability of Chinese oil companies to invest abroad.(2).This paper analyzes the target effect of Chinese petroleum enterprises’foreign direct investment,and thinks that the ultimate purpose of Chinese petroleum enterprises’foreign direct investment is to obtain resources on the basis of realizing profits.Its main characteristics are reflected in the return of petroleum products as investment.Therefore,the location advantage of the host country’s infrastructure,labor quality,investment environment,oil resource endowment and other factors will have an impact on the target effect of Chinese oil companies,and then the choice of investment location of Chinese oil companies.This is the theoretical framework of this paper based on relevant basic theories,as well as the basis for empirical research.In terms of empirical research,based on the framework of theoretical analysis,relevant domestic data and transnational panel data of 20 petroleum resource countries along the "The Belt And Road"from 2000 to 2016 were selected to conduct empirical analysis on the influencing factors of Chinese petroleum enterprises’investment from the perspective of home country and host country investment.Based on the influence factors of the investment home country,the research shows that the oil supply gap becomes bigger and bigger with the rapid development of China’s economy.The enhancement of the strength of oil enterprises makes China’s foreign oil investment scale constantly increasing.China’s economic environment,domestic oil supply and oil price have a significant impact on China’s foreign oil investment and cooperation.The impact of industrial environment and domestic oil demand on Chinese oil enterprises’foreign investment is not significant.However,China’s huge market capacity,enterprise size,profit-driven capital and long-term investment effect will increase the motivation of Chinese oil companies to make foreign direct investment.Based on the research on the influencing factors of host country,it is shown that Chinese oil companies are indeed attracted to countries with rich oil resources along the routes in the practice of overseas investment.In the background of"The Belt And Road"construction,the political,economic and trade ties between China and countries in the region are continuously strengthened,China’s influence is constantly improving,and the corresponding investment risk expectation will be reduced.The petroleum resource endowment and infrastructure of the host country are significantly correlated with the location choice of Chinese petroleum enterprises’foreign direct investment,and the distance cost is significantly negatively correlated,while the political stability has no significant influence on the investment of Chinese petroleum enterprises.On the basis of the above research,the location selection of the selected sample countries was analyzed,among which Saudi Arabia,UAE,Kuwait,Iran,Iraq,Kazakhstan and Russia were the main preferred areas for Chinese oil companies to make foreign direct investment.The innovation of this research:(1)from the perspective of research,from the micro perspective of the enterprise,under the background of"The Belt And Road",this dissertation discusses the factors influencing the location selection of Chinese oil enterprises’foreign oil investment.The research perspective has certain characteristics and new ideas,and the research in the field of petroleum economy in China is improved and enriched to a certain extent.(2)In terms of theoretical extension and development,this dissertation analyzes the theoretical applicability of the location selection of Chinese enterprises’foreign direct investment,and summarizes the characteristics of different countries.With China being a country with both developing and developed counties’characteristics,based on the theory of national advantage and international production compromise,targeting on Chinese petroleum enterprises,the dissertation further improve the interpretation of foreign direct investment theories and extend and expand the application of foreign direct investment location choice theory.(3)In terms of index construction,based on the practice of location selection of China’s petroleum enterprises’foreign direct investment,the indexes of reserves,output,technology and investment policy are incorporated into the resource technology index,as well as the economic evaluation index and political environment index.This dissertation makes up for the deficiency of the previous indicators which only focus on the characterization of one of the factors,and constructs an evaluation index system which can fully reflect the characteristics of China’s oil enterprises in foreign direct investment location selection.