Lwin Shehu, the former chief economist at International Monetary Fund, said an increase in global supply of oil could increase prices that would be passed on to consumers.

“In an uncertain world, we have been able to increase the price of oil in several countries to the tune of 1,000 to 2,000 per cent,” he said. “If you can’t have that, then it is not going to be an improvement in the price of energy, but rather an expansion in that trade.”

That is one reason the United States, the world’s biggest oil producer, has been reluctant to approve more drilling. China’s leaders, meanwhile, have had to deal with slowing growth to create the environment for new pipelines.

On Friday, the Chinese authorities said they would open up new supply zones to allow for more imports, including oil from Iraq and Qatar, which were already permitted.

But the Chinese government’s intervention is likely to face opposition from the oil industry.

Seymour Hersh, chairman of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Committee to Protect Journalists, said that the Chinese were now “dying to come close to the West”.

Speaking to the Guardian, he said: “China is not going to be allowed to open up new areas. What they do is what we used to say: ‘Don’t touch.’ I think they are dying to come closer to the West.”

The Chinese government also told the International Council of Petroleum Exporting Countries last month that it needed to boost its oil supplies, in return for an increase in financial support, and has already launched a series of measures, including setting up exploration licences in deep water zones.

Nationally, the number of registered oil companies in China rose by 70% last year, to 1,049. But official figures show that the companies, many of which are state-owned, are struggling to compete in a climate of low growth and cost cuts, or because the vast majority of new investments are concentrated in heavy industry and petrochemical plants.

Last month, a report by the International Energy Agency suggested it could be time to consider a “golden age” of exploration across most of the world, because of the global glut in oil and gas.

Yet analysts say the world is still too reliant on the oil and gas sector for sustainable growth.

Last week, the governor of the Bank of England pointedly cautioned that the world had