Growth is driving China’s insatiable demand for energy, leading to it becoming the world’s second biggest consumer of energy.
BP’s 2012 Statistical Review of World Energy showed China alone accounted for 71% of global energy consumption growth.
This meant it accounted for more than 20% of total world energy demand.
And that growth comes despite a recent slowdown in the country’s overall economy.
Earlier this year Petro-China overtook Exxon-Mobil as the world’s largest oil producer.
It produced 886.1million barrels of oil last year – the equivalent of 2.43million barrels a day.
In January, Exxon said it produced 2.3million barrels a day.
Despite having its own production, the country’s demand for energy has seen state-owned firms looking to the rest of the world for oil and gas.
In 2010 CNOOC bought a £1.2billion stake in US firm Chesapeake’s Texas oil fields and paid the same for Canadian oil sands operator OPTI Canada in 2011.
Also in 2011, China National Petroleum Corp paid more than £3.1billion for a joint venture in Canadian shale gas properties held by Encana and Sinopec paid £4.4billion for a share in Brazil’s deepwater assets.
In Scotland, PetroChina formed a joint venture company with existing operator Ineos to run the Grangemouth refinery on the Forth in a deal worth £626million.