RELATED ARTICLESNovember 2009 - Middle East set for upstream and downstream growth
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China nurtures Mideast oil relations
Chinese national oil companies are developing upstream and downstream relationships across the Middle East, as the country endeavours to secure steady oil supplies, writes Digby Lidstone
CHINA IS a relative newcomer to the Middle East, establishing diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia only in the 1990s, but it has made up for lost time. Chinese contractors have been engaged on some of the biggest projects in the region, from the Merowe Dam in Sudan to the new high-speed railway linking the holy cities of Mecca and Medina to Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. But the backbone of the relationship is oil. Chinese national oil companies such as Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), its arch-rival, have been less squeamish than US or European oil majors about doing business in countries such as Sudan, and have beaten Western firms to upstream contracts in Iraq. China and the Mideast Gulf states have also ...Click here to continue reading China nurtures Mideast oil relations
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