Thursday 31 May 2007
6:00pm – 8:00pm
China and the Global Energy Crisis: an Anglo-Japanese Perspective
Daiwa Foundation Japan House
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
By Tatsu Kambara and Christopher Howe (with a preface by Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool)
Published by Edward Elgar
The world energy scene has been profoundly disturbed during the past three years. Oil prices have been unstable; major concerns have arisen over the supply conditions in countries such as Iraq and Nigeria; and alarm has been rising over the environmental implications of current energy trends. A new dimension to this picture has been the changing role of China. Although still only a partially industrialised economy and still overwhelmingly dependent on coal, China has emerged as a major producer and consumer of oil and gas. For over a decade now, China’s net oil imports have been growing and the Chinese have begun a world wide search for commercial and political deals to secure stable overseas supplies.
This new study analyses China’s oil and gas sector and seeks to establish some firm factual foundations for our understanding of the past development of the sector and its probable future. Based on years of experience and on an exhaustive examination of materials published in China and Japan, the authors show first, what a remarkable technological accomplishment the past growth of the sector has been, and then outline what the future for the next decade or so is likely to be.
The main conclusion is that while there are no grounds for anticipating that China’s demands are bound to destabilise the world oil and gas markets, continued progress in the domestic market will call for strong determination to press ahead both with reform of the economic system and a growing elaboration of China’s international energy relations.
About the contributors
Tatsu Kambara
Tatsu Kambara was educated at Waseda University and did postgraduate work on the history of Nepal. He remains deeply involved in Japan-Nepal relations and is now Vice President of The Japan-Nepal Society. He has worked at various times for the Japan Petroleum Exploration Corporation, the Japan Petroleum Development Corporation, the Institute of Developing Economies, and the Japan Institute of Energy Economics. In the 1970s, he studied under the late Professor Edith Penrose at SOAS, University of London and has collaborated with his co-author since that time. He has published widely on Asian energy issues and has long been regarded as Japan’s leading specialist on the Chinese oil sector.
Professor Christopher Howe
Christopher Howe studied economics and history at Cambridge and wrote a PhD at SOAS, University of London, on the economic development of Shanghai. In 1984 he switched to the study of Japan and in recent years has specialised in the study of technology policies and regional integration in East Asia. From 1974 to 1999, he worked as an advisor to the Hong Kong government. In 2001, he was appointed at SOAS to be London University’s first professor of Chinese Business and Management. He is currently a professor in the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, chair of the British Academy’s China Panel and a fellow of the 48 Group Club.
Robert Mabro CBE
Robert Mabro CBE (chair) is Honorary President of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.