China condemns Ethiopia attack amid oil security fears

BEIJING, Apr 25 (Reuters) Beijing has strongly condemned the slaying of 9 Chinese oil workers in Ethiopia, an attack that underscores risks associated with China's increasing dependence on shipments from sometimes unstable regions.

Gunmen killed 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese yesterday in a pre-dawn raid that Ethiopia blamed on rebels backed by regional foe Eritrea.

A separatist guerrilla group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), said it carried out the attack on the oil field staffed by the Chinese workers.

Even before the attacks, a top Chinese energy official warned that the rapidly growing industrial economy faces dangers as it pushes abroad for oil, the China Securities Journal reported today.

''The sources of China's oil imports are excessively concentrated in geo-politically complex and changeable regions,'' Xu Dingming, director-general of the Energy Bureau at the National Development and Reform Commission, told an energy forum.

China's oil imports have been constantly rising, exposing it to price fluctuations and supply risks, Xu said.

Today, China's Foreign Ministry could not provide more information about how the workers died and where they were from.

China's Xinhua news agency said the Chinese staff were working for Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, which is based in central China's Henan province and is part of the much larger China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation.

The presence and influence of Chinese companies have surged in Africa in recent years after Beijing set its sights on the continent as a supplier of raw materials for its booming economy. It has made most inroads in Africa's oil sector.

Angola is now China's biggest foreign crude oil supplier, and Sudan, where bloody conflict in the Darfur region has threatened regional stability, was the sixth biggest supplier in the first three months of 2006, according to Chinese customs data.

REUTERS LPB DS1300