The sharp rise in oil prices is causing concern in China, to the point that, despite the austerity policy being followed by the Asian giant, its oil companies have significantly increased their investment budgets.

China's three largest oil companies-PetroChina, Sinopec and Cnooc-plan to invest US$84 billion this year by 2022, almost 5% more than in 2021. In fact, PetroChina and Sinopec are the oil companies with the largest investment budgets this year, second only to Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company.

2022 investment budget of the world's largest oil companies

(US$ millions)

Source: Bloomberg