Asian Oil: Securing Supply

Numbers count, especially in Asia, and especially when they are pointing in different directions. Asian countries outside the Middle East consume three times as much oil as they produce, and consumption is rising while production is not. As oil imports grow, oil companies there are looking for some share in that growth by investing in exploration and production in the rest of the world. Asian governments support these companies, using diplomacy, aid, and a broad geopolitical approach to economic cooperation with developing oil exporters in Africa and Central Asia.