Abstract: China’s current economic development depends heavily on its access to energy
resources, and it is increasingly shaping Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) in
a quest for resources located abroad. The aim of this paper is to answer the two following
questions: How much did the Chinese global quest for energy drive its OFDI between 2005 and
2012? And has the quest for energy been sensitive to the geographical location of the
resources? We used data on Chinese OFDI from the China Global Investment Tracker, as well
as diverse Host-Countries determinants of previously tested OFDI. We measured the impact of
host country energy production in the allocation of investments. Using several multivariate
regression models, we demonstrate that energy resources were the main driver of Chinese
OFDI in 92 host countries during the studied period, and that there was no sensitivity to the
geographical location of the resources.