Scanning the past decade of energy development, cooperation and governance in the Middle East-Arab countries

In recent years, Iraq's oil export revenue accounted for more than 40% of its domestic GDP, accounting for more than 90% of the country's total export, and Iraq's post-war reconstruction would be impossible without oil production and export. On the other hand, Iraq successfully achieved post-war reconstruction with the help of foreign oil companies, which in itself is a "miracle" in international energy cooperation and national development.

The third strategic breakthrough: The "OPEC+" mechanism led by Saudi Arabia has exerted a great influence on international oil prices. Since the second half of 2014, this round of sharp decline in international oil prices has given birth to a new international oil cooperation mechanism: OPEC countries led by Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC countries led by Russia (that is, OPEC+), through reaching a "joint production reduction agreement" to control the "flood" of global oil production, so as to achieve the purpose of stabilizing oil prices. In the face of the "winter" of the oil market, Saudi Arabia and Russia can be said to be "hit it off", during the G20 Summit held in Hangzhou, China, in October 2016, the heads of state of the two countries reached a consensus on "joint production reduction", and reached a joint production reduction agreement for the first time in Vienna on December 10, 2016. The "Vienna Union" was born.

In particular, since the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 and before the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis in February 2022, the mechanism has played a key role in responding to major crises. In the first half of 2020, the global economy fell into "acute shock" due to the novel coronavirus epidemic, and international oil prices even fell to negative oil prices. In April 2020, OPEC and the non-OPEC alliance (OPEC+) reached a two-year production cut agreement, with the first cut of 9.7 million barrels per day, accounting for about 10% of the global daily supply, which is the largest production cut agreement since the establishment of the mechanism. Since then, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and other countries have also joined the production cuts, and the total global output has exceeded 20 million barrels per day, equivalent to 20% of global supply, more than four times the scale of production cuts during the 2008 financial crisis. In the past two years, the super-strong production reduction execution shown by "Opec +" has been rare since its establishment, which has effectively enhanced the international voice of oil producing countries.

The "Opec +" mechanism has reshaped and enhanced Saudi Arabia's mission and status as a global "mobile producer" of oil, and also highlighted the position of Middle Eastern oil producers in the global energy landscape.

The fourth strategic breakthrough: Chinese energy enterprises represented by CNPC gallop the market of Gulf countries. The reconstruction of Iraq after the war and the re-opening of the oil market, as well as the landing of the "Belt and Road" Initiative in the Middle East, have created huge opportunities for Chinese energy companies to deeply cultivate the Middle East energy market. The fruitful results of oil and gas cooperation between Chinese enterprises and Middle East-Arab countries have also become a highlight of energy cooperation and diversification in the region in the past decade.

Among them, the story of the three major oil companies entering the Middle East market is the most wonderful. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) took the lead in opening up the situation in Syria and Oman, seized the fleeting window of opportunity for Iraq's post-war opening up in 2008, and jointly invested and developed several large-scale oil field projects in Iraq with its international first-class counterparts. Through this, CNPC became the largest foreign investor in Iraq. The annual output of the oil fields invested and constructed by the company is more than 120 million tons. Moreover, with the help of the "Belt and Road" construction Dongfeng, CNPC broke through the UAE oil market, successfully obtained part of the equity in the joint venture development of two ultra-large oil field projects with an annual output of 40 million tons and participated in the project operation. The second is Sinopec, which has made a major breakthrough in Saudi Arabia's downstream refining industry. In 2016, Yanbu Refinery in Saudi Arabia with an annual capacity of 20 million tons was successfully completed and put into operation, which is China's largest overseas joint venture refining project. In addition, Sinopec has always been the main force of China's import of Saudi crude oil. In addition, CNOOC also won the right to operate in the southern Iraqi oil field project cluster, which reached a peak production level of 300,000 barrels per day at the end of October this year. Through the efforts of the three major oil companies, the Middle East-Arab countries have become the highland for Chinese enterprises to "go out" and implement international cooperation, and half of China's overseas oil and gas production is in the Middle East.