A few months back we had discussed the emergence of US as a major energy player. With its shale gas deposits it is slated to become the largest oil producing nation by 2020. But there is another country that is all set to become a major global force in terms of oil production. And that too much earlier than US. The country is none other than China. As per the Financial Times, China will produce enough oil outside of its borders to rival OPEC members like Kuwait. Through overseas oil investments the country is expected to produce nearly 3 m barrels of oil per day by 2015. This is double of what it produced in 2011.

The emergence of China as a major oil producing nation has two major implications. The first being the supply. There is a lot of dispute on this front. China is the world's second largest importer of oil. As a result it would be natural to assume that most of the oil that its companies discover would be shipped back to China. The Chinese oil companies have said that they sell the offshore oil in international markets. But given that China's own needs are quite high, they may send a large part back home. The second impact would be China's exposure to foreign politics. All oil producing nations are perpetually on the centre stage. And China is all set the join them.