OREANDA-NEWS. November 24, 2014. China’s national oil companies have suffered setbacks to their investments in politically-unstable countries such as Sudan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, the International Energy Agency said.

Sudanese oil output for China National Petroleum Corp. and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (386), the country’s two biggest producers, dropped to 84,000 barrels a day at the end of 2013 from as many as 210,000 barrels in 2010, the IEA said in a newsletter dated Nov. 3. The independence of South Sudan in 2011 destabilized the African country and caused the shutdown of most Chinese wells in the nation.

At least USD14 billion of investments in Iran also soured following international sanctions against the country. Iran fell to sixth place among crude suppliers to China in 2013 from third in 2010 and 2011, the IEA report said.

Chinese oil companies have invested USD 73 billion in energy assets globally since 2011 to secure supplies and feed the country’s growing demand. They now operate in more than 40 countries and control about 7 percent of worldwide crude oil output, according to the IEA report.

Qu Guangxue, CNPC’s Beijing-based spokesman, didn’t answer two calls to his office seeking comment. A Beijing-based spokesman for China Petroleum, known as Sinopec, didn’t answer two calls to his office.

Fighting in Libya cut shipments to China by more than a third. The country had to evacuate 35,000 nationals from Libya during the revolt that overthrew Muammar Qaddafi. China has been in discussions with the new government about its pre-2011 contacts, according to the IEA report.

China’s major national oil companies withdrew from civil war-torn Syria in 2013, after their production dropped below 53,000 barrels a day in 2011. Only Sinochem Group is operating in the country with an output of 2,500 barrels per day.