Abstract
Daniel Large looks at China's relationship with Sudan. He suggests that by far the most significant and consequential area where China has and will continue to impact on Sudan is oil. After under a decade as an oil exporter, northern Sudan's current oil-fuelled economic growth is primarily benefitting an elite but is indicative of the underlying evolution in the basis of resource extraction and associated politics. This threatens to develop in a manner that departs from previous periods of Sudanese history in terms of the opportunities oil revenue presents for the ruling elite in Sudan. The outstanding question for Sudan is the developmental implications of petro-politics on the Nile and the spectre of an emerging resource curse scenario.
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Notes
Costing about $1.5 billion, the project is financed largely by Arab multilateral and national funds and implemented by a joint venture involving the China National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering and China Water Engineering.
Other stakeholders in this consortium are Petronas (30 percent), ONGC Videsh (25 percent) and Sudan's state oil company Sudapet (5 percent).
Petronas took 40 percent, and the Al Thani Corporation (UAE) a 5 percent stake.
Enabling expansion to 100,000 barrels per day(Reuters, 2006).
From 15.7 billion Sudanese dinars (US$61 million) in 1999 to an estimated 153.2 billion dinars (US$596 million) in 2001 (Georgette Gagnon and John Ryle, 2001: 35).
Report of the Panel of Experts established pursuant to paragraph 3 of resolution 1591 (2005) concerning the Sudan (30 January 2006), para. 125, p. 37. It also found that 222 military vehicles procured from Dongfeng Automobile Import and Export Limited in China.
Ernst Jan Hogendoorn quoted in Opheera McDoom, ‘Chinese arms in Darfur: the twisted trail of weapons’, Reuters 19 June 2006.
CNPC has officially been ‘promoting local economic development through petroleum cooperation’ and ‘is also committed to its social responsibilities’ having ‘invested more than 30 million dollars in Sudan's public facilities such as hospitals, schools, roads and portable water wells’ (Xinhua, 2006).
References
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Bodeen, Christopher (2007) ‘Chinese Official Defends Sudan Ties’, Associated Press, 15 May.
European Consortium on Oil in Sudan (ECOS) (2006) ‘Oil Development in Northern Upper Nile, Sudan’, May, available at http://www.ecosonline.org.
Gagnon, Georgette and John Ryle (2001) ‘Report of an Investigation into Oil Development, Conflict and Displacement in Western Upper Nile, Sudan’, October.
Human Rights Watch (2003) Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights, New York.
Reuters (2006) ‘Sudan's Khartoum Refinery Expanded, Sees Gasoline Exports’, 10 July.
Shichor, Yitzhak (2007) ‘China's Darfur Policy’, China Brief 5 January.
Tian, Chun Rong (2003) ‘2002 nian - zhongguo shiyou jin chukou zhuangkuang fenxi [An Analysis of the Condition of China's Oil Imports in 2002]’, Guoji Sheyou Jingji [International Oil Economics] 11 (3).
Xinhua (2004) ‘China Offers More Aid for Darfur’, 17 August.
Xinhua (2006) ‘China, Arabian States Vow To Promote Petrochemical Cooperation’, 8 September.
Xinhua (2007) ‘Chinese, Sudanese Presidents Discuss Bilateral Ties, Darfur Issue’, 2 February.
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Questions the implications of China in Sudan and an emerging resource curse scenario
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Large, D. China and the Changing Context of Development in Sudan. Development 50, 57–62 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1100405
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1100405