China and India: The quest for energy resources in the twenty-first century.

• Author: Zhang, Lei

China and India: The quest for energy resources in the twenty-first century, by ZHAO HONG. (London; New York: Routledge, 2012), 162 pages, ISBN: 978-0-415-82038-7.

This book helps us understand the increasing energy demand of the two biggest developing countries: China and India as they redraw the map of world energy. Both of these two countries are eager for imported energy, especially oil and natural gas. Since an unstable Middle East and Africa are their predominant sources, the issue of energy security is raised not only for these two countries but also for the rest of the world. As these two countries do their best to secure energy supplies, they are changing the geopolitical arena as well as creating challenges for the existing dominant players.

As new players, these two countries have cultures and business practices different from each other as well as from western players. China has been far more aggressive than India in reaching out with foreign direct investment (FDI) in oil and gas in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. The author calls this FDI a "going out strategy." While India being much closer with a longer relationship to oil producing regions has relied more on inter-governmental negotiation.

Now these two countries tend to be competing with each other for access to international oil and gas supplies. However, the author argues that the countries would benefit from more cooperation. In addition, western companies tend to view these new players as a threat. Again the author argues that western companies should be encouraged to consider the opportunities these two countries might offer. These basic themes of the relationships amongst the major players are in the background as the author outlines the countries domestic energy markets, their international trade, environmental issues, energy polices, and strategies.

Chapter 1 covers the background of these two new players in the world energy market. In fact, the author is motivated to focus on this topic just because the world economy seems to be going into the Asian century, and China and India are the leaders during this process. This chapter serves as a good starting point to describe the new energy demand shift to the east and debates on oil-balance strategy.

Chapter 2 considers growth in GDP, population, and transportation as the same drivers behind energy demand growth in China and India, leading the author to expect them to account for 20.4% and 7.2% of world...