“You have made miracles happen,” China’s former energy tsar Zhou Yongkang told Chinese oil workers in 1999. They had just finished work on an oil pipeline in Sudan at a time when the idea of crude oil costing over $100 a barrel seemed unbelievable.
Viewed from the other side of the commodities boom, the miracle seems more like a mirage. Oil prices are back below $50 a barrel and global investment in resources is falling as expectations for Chinese growth cool. Mr Zhou, who rose to head China’s security services, is now in jail for corruption. Violence in Sudan has cut the flow of oil that his teams worked so hard to develop.
Still, Mr Zhou was right in many respects. He was one of the few to anticipate that China’s hunger for resources would require a global footprint. China is now the world’s largest crude importer and its investment decisions affect every continent.