The Dirty Dozen #12: PetroChina

China’s ever increasing industrial development makes its demand for oil more vital than ever.  Coupled with a depletion of its own oilfields that by the late 1990s already passed their peak production, China looked beyond its borders to fuel its growing energy needs.  PetroChina, an arm of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) found what it needed in Sudan and has invested more than $1 billion in a joint venture with the Sudanese government to boost oil production. [1]

CNPC and PetroChina own the most shares of Sudan’s oil group; in 2005, this amounted to more than half of Sudan’s oil exports. [2]   In short, China’s trade in the Sudanese oilfields and collaboration with the corrupt government amounts to support of the ongoing genocide through the supply of money and arms.  

It is estimated that 70 to 80 percent of Sudan’s oil revenues go to the government’s military, not surprising considering China has been supplying the Sudanese government with antipersonnel and antitank mines, ammunition, tanks, helicopters, and fighter planes since 1980. [3]   Further, China’s veto power in the United Nations has kept the U.N. from issuing a strong resolution on the situation, at a cost of millions of lives of dead and displaced people.

PetroChina’s activities place it on the "Dirty Dozen" list for the following reasons:

• Exploitation:   PetroChina and the CNPC pursued a policy of increased investment in the Sudanese government, propping-up a murderous regime, thereby exploiting the unstable situation in its thirst for oil.
• Supporting Genocide:   The enormous amount of investment money China pumps into Sudan for oil-production infrastructure comes out as funds for the oppressive government in Sudan, most of which goes to the oppressive military and Arab militiamen.   China also continues to be a supplier of various arms to Sudan, as well as actively blocking U.N. actions seeking to resolve the crisis in that region.