Cooperation Risk of Oil and Gas Resources between China and the Countries along the Belt and Road

ABSTRACT China is deepening the cooperation of oil and natural gas resources with the countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) with the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, the risks to China’s energy associated with this cooperation must be considered due to the large differences in economic and political characteristics among these countries. In this paper, four risk indexes (political, economic, social stability, resource and environmental risk) are considered to evaluate the cooperation between China and B&R countries for oil and gas resources, and we use an improved-entropy TOPSIS method to rank the 28 B&R countries. We then classify the cooperation risk into four levels (from very high to very low) by using cluster analysis, and propose countermeasures for mitigating these risks. The results can provide a decision reference for the Chinese government and for oil and gas resource enterprises to improve cooperation with the B&R countries.