Sovereign countries actively promote the process of international oil cooperation, and international oil cooperation has become a strategic choice to ensure oil security. In recent years, out of concern for oil security, some countries with rapid oil consumption have invested heavily in overseas oil infrastructure, especially in Africa and the former Soviet Union, to ensure their oil supply. In June 2006, the two-day meeting of finance ministers of the Group of Eight (G8) held in St. Petersburg put the issue of energy security on the agenda for the first time, which triggered a strong response from finance ministers attending the meeting.
As the main body to promote the process of international oil cooperation, multinational corporations are playing an increasingly active role.
The world's major multinational oil companies control more than 30% of the world's oil industry output value, trade volume and direct investment exceed two-thirds of the world's, and have more than 80% of the world's advanced petroleum and petrochemical technology. After a new round of merger and reorganization, the world's four major oil companies ExxonMobil, Anglo-Dutch Shell, BP and Total Elf Fina account for 32% of the world's oil product sales and 19% of the world's refining capacity. Since 1990s, especially in recent years, the capital expenditure of oil and gas departments of international oil and gas companies ranks first among all departments of the company, accounting for more than 80%, and some companies even reach more than 90%. In the oil and gas sector, exploration and development expenditure accounts for the vast majority of the total expenditure of the oil and gas sector. From the investment direction, its transnational investment is mainly carried out between developed countries. However, in order to further optimize the allocation of world resources, compete for the global market and seek profit growth points in the new century, while consolidating the basically saturated European and American markets, multinational oil companies have shifted their development focus to emerging markets mainly in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, China and Australia, CIS and Beihai, Nigeria, Angola and Egypt in Africa, Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil in Latin America. As far as investment is concerned, although the foreign capital of oil-producing countries in the Middle East and other regions is also increasing, the potential of the Far East/Pacific region and the former Soviet Union region is the largest in the world, followed by Latin America.
Emerging countries have become important participants in international oil cooperation. China, Indian and other developing countries' huge demand for energy has changed the balance of the international energy field to some extent. Taking China as an example, China's sustained economic development over the years has promoted the strong growth of oil consumption, transforming from an oil exporter to an importer. Although the proportion of China's oil imports is less than half at present, according to the prediction of relevant institutions, how to ensure a stable and diversified international oil supply will become more and more important for the future development of China. It is in this context that China not only needs to coordinate its relations with the super giant OPEC, which controls 40% of the world's crude oil production, and strive for a stable total import volume and price, but also needs to carry out more constructive energy cooperation with neighboring oil-producing countries such as Russia and Kazakhstan. Due to the vast market of emerging countries, the dependence of energy exporting countries on the markets of the United States, Europe and Japan has declined, and their negotiating ability in the international energy field will gradually increase.
From the global experience, international energy cooperation has its special sensitivity because it involves complex factors such as economy, security and geopolitics, while international oil cooperation inevitably has frictions and is more complicated. At the beginning of 2006, Russia decided to suspend the supply of natural gas to Ukraine because of the wide gap in price renegotiation. Since Russia's natural gas exported to the EU also passes through Ukraine, this matter has become an international energy dispute of global concern. From the original Anda-Dalian oil pipeline scheme to the present Taina oil pipeline scheme, this important oil pipeline, which is several Qian Qian meters long, covers a wide range, not only with large investment and oil supply, but also directly affects the international energy supply pattern of oil consuming countries such as China and Japan. The parties concerned have held repeated consultations to maximize their respective interests.