Geographical Space Distribution of China's Oil and Gas Industry: Characteristics and Drivers

Abstract: Here, the geographical space distribution of the oil and gas industry in China is comprehensively investigated using the overall Moran's I index and local Moran's I index. We found that China's oil and gas industry development from 2000 to 2010 has a differentiated geographical space distribution upstream (extractive industry) but not downstream (refining industry). To analyze upstream and downstream states a spatial econometrics model (SEM) was used to identify influential factors resulting from the spatial concentration of the oil and gas industry. An external effect is the key factor promoting the spatial concentration of the upstream industry in China; governmental economic policy is another important factor.