The bilingual environment-watching website China Dialogue has published two articles about China's involvement in Africa, focusing on Nigeria and Angola:

The new face of Nigeria’s oil industry by Godwin Nnanna

Excerpt:

"Half a century of oil exploration in the Niger Delta has left the people of the region poorer than they were before the discovery of oil in their neighborhood."

For all those desirous to see greater flow of foreign direct investments into Africa, the year 2006 opened on a very optimistic note. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced an investment of US$2.3 billion in Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation. The deal, China’s biggest investment foray into Africa, gives the corporation a 45% stake in an off-shore oil field. China now has partial control over a Nigerian oil field that has the capacity to produce as much as 180,000 barrels per day.

China’s African encounter by Ben Schiller

Excerpt:

"The weaknesses of Chinese corporate-responsibility standards are most evident in developing world – where the majority of Chinese investment is now focused – and are frequently oil-related."

China has long enjoyed good relations with the southern African state of Angola, during the Cold War the two regimes shared ideological sympathies. But the relationship has taken on a new closeness in recent years, as China’s economy has expanded and Beijing has encouraged its companies to scour the world for natural resources. From being a blip on China’s strategic map, Angola is now central to China’s strategic plans – a country to be flattered and indulged through a mix of military support, aid, and cheap loans.

Earlier this year, Angola – Africa’s second largest oil producer - became China’s number one source of crude oil, overtaking Iran, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. In May, Sinopec, one of China’s three leading oil companies, struck a US$2.2 billion deal with Sonangol, Angola's state-owned oil company, to develop two new blocks with estimated reserves of 4.5 billion barrels, adding to its previous concessions. By 2008, Angola will supply the People’s Republic with up to two million barrels a day. And, by all accounts, the plan is for more.