Research On Business Management And Sustainable Development Of China National Oil Companies Operating In Oil Producing African Countries

The booming Chinese economy was confronted with a severe energy shortage shortly after entering the 21st century. In the process of building a prosperous society that benefits all Chinese, energy has a significant bearing on China's sustainable development. To address its tremendous energy challenges, Beijing is actively investing in any global solution. Similarly, understanding China's unique energy circumstances is the first step to engaging China on international cooperation to ensure China plays by the rules. Though China's national energy strategy has been laid out in its first energy White Paper, it is in China's best interest to continuously refine its energy policy in the years to come, ideally, with substantial help from the international community. By 2045, China is projected to depend on imported oil for 45 percent of its energy needs.Debates demonstrate that China's energy policymaking process is far from being a monolithic bloc. Chinese officials, business leaders and their foreign counterparts are all exploring the implications of China's "go-out" strategy at the moment of economic crisis and oil price uncertainty. One sector for development clearly targeted by Beijing's diversification campaign is its strategic petroleum reserves (SPR).China in Africa is the new attraction in academic circles. Indeed, it is difficult to talk about world politics or development economics today without some reference to China entering the analysis. China's Africa policy is an important component of its independent foreign policy of peace. Owing to different international environments and situations in China and Africa in different historical periods, China's Africa policy has demonstrated different features. China rhetorically promotes common vision with African nations based on principles of equality, sovereignty, "win-win" cooperation, economic development. This way, China represents a "soft-alternative" to the United States of America and Western countries to Africa. African nations are a welcome audience for Chinese principles guiding global affairs.In terms of investment from China, the PRC which is investing heavily in Africa's economic development has played an amazing role for Africa's economic development and has laid a solid foundation. Up to 2008, it has invested some US＄30 billion in Africa's oil and gas industries. Chinese companies see Africa as both an excellent market for their low-cost consumer goods, and a burgeoning economic opportunity as more countries privatize their industries and open their economies to foreign investment.Chinese state-owned enterprises and private companies doing business in Africa are increasingly finding their lucrative and unbridled trade and contracts mired in the pervasive domestic power struggles shaping African politics. Chinese businesses'risk aversion to uncertainties and their ability to remain above the fray in endemic instabilities are being tested throughout the African continent.Sino-African trade grew by 700 percent during the 1990s, and the 2000 China-Africa Forum in Beijing set off a new era of trade cooperation and investment that is producing notable results. Most of the growth was due to increased Chinese imports of oil from Sudan and other African nations. China is now the continent's third most-important trading partner, behind the United States and France, and ahead of Britain. Trade between China and Africa has seen dramatic growth in recent years, and indeed this growth is almost always greater than China's entry into the global economy through trade expansion and penetration.Chinese imports from Africa are heavily skewed toward resources and in particular mineral fuels and precious metals. This reflects China's rapidly growing demand for commodities and pursuit of energy security abroad as much as it speaks to Africa's inability (excluding South Africa) to nurture and expand downstream beneficiating industry capacity.Chinese exports to Africa are much more diverse and span most of the general manufacturing sectors. Globally China was ranked by the WTO as the second most important merchandise exporting country behind Germany and the third most important country behind the U.S. and Germany during 2007 when intra-European Union trade is included.China may wish to consider extending its currently limited preferences for Africa into a much more ambitious trade scheme. Gains and goodwill that will be generated from giving Africa an opportunity to promote its own resource and manufacturing base would be a very good thing. This base is in itself contributed to both directly and indirectly through the construction infrastructure which China itself is probably the largest financier of in Africa. The rhetoric of "win-win:or "mutual benefit"-both often repeated in China-Africa circles, would certainly be given substantive boost through such a broader and more entrenched trade liberalization move initiated by Beijing.For China, development assistance is valued for associated political relationships and economic opportunities, especially access to resources and markets for manufactured products.China is more likely to take such a chance to increase its influence in the region and secure its own long term interests. Given high level political commitments to Africa and the 2009 China-Africa Summit, China will almost certainly maintain or increase development assistance; Chinese leaders have reiterated their commitments, announced new projects and assistance, and a reduction or relief of debt.A trend of "new coupling" has emerged-coupled economic growth destinies of China and Africa. China's commerce-first approach toward Africa is increasingly appealing to African states over the traditional aid led approach. The firm can only successfully operate today if it is able to make use of a certain percentage of its own oil production. Of course, every investment carries some degree of risk or uncertainty, but some carry far more risk than others. The manager's job is to minimize these risks. Even though many oil companies are reporting record profits, many people forget just how expensive it is for energy companies to engage in the oil business. Chinese National Oil Companies are mainly seeking to maximize net interest margin business owner's equity and cost-effective. "Sustainable Development" is a common goal among many companies today. But how does a corporation know if it is succeeding in reaching this goal? It is the main question we are try to solve in this thesis.