Chinese oil major Sinopec said Thursday it had no plans to pull out of resource-rich Africa despite an attack on one of its oil projects in Ethiopia that left 77 people dead. "We've launched a contingency plan alerting all overseas projects to pay more attention to security," a Sinopec official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"But we are not talking about ceasing projects or changing our strategy or anything like that," the official added. Sinopec is the parent of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, the operator of the oil field, where 68 Ethiopians and nine Chinese workers were killed in Tuesday's pre-dawn assault by rebel gunmen.
Seven other Chinese workers were kidnapped and remained unaccounted for. "The government has encouraged us to invest in oil resources overseas. I think there will be no major change in our strategy due to the incident," the official said.
The state-run China Daily earlier Thursday quoted an unnamed Sinopec spokesman as saying there was "no way" the company would avoid Africa in the future. "This is not a game for us. We will try to improve security in the future but there is no way we will withdraw from our projects there," the spokesman said.
The attack has highlighted energy-dependent China's growing vulnerability as it scours the world for oil, gas and other raw materials to power its voracious economy.
Sinopec, whose African involvement is mainly in Nigerian and Angolan oil fields, said other foreign companies such as Total of France or Anglo-Dutch energy firm Royal Dutch/Shell were more vulnerable. "Political relations between some African countries and their countries, as well as public attitudes towards them, are not as good as what we Chinese have," the Sinopec official said. "We just happened to be involved in the incident but it was not specifically targeted at Chinese."
While the attack was unlikely to prompt divestment of other Chinese interests in Africa, it may force Beijing into a deeper level of engagement with its African trading partners, analysts told the China Daily. "This incident will not have a major influence on China's investment in Africa," said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China.