Zhou Yongkang’s rise to power fuelled by oil

For much of his career, Zhou Yongkang glided among the most influential sectors of modern China - oil, land and eventually the national police apparatus.

Much of his success can be traced to his membership of the so-called petroleum gang - top officials who began their professional lives in the industry as the nation pivoted from oil exporter to importer in the 1990s. The change benefited state-owned oil giants that have exclusive rights to import crude.

A key member was Zeng Qinghong, the former vice-president. He mentored Zhou and referred him to former president Jiang Zemin.

Zhou rose to the highest level of power - membership in the Standing Committee of the Politburo. But he exposed himself to attack by aligning himself with fallen princeling Bo Xilai - another champion of the truncheon school of policing. He was reportedly the sole member of the Standing Committee to disapprove of how the former Chongqing party chief was being handled before his sacking.

Zhou was born in 1942 in Wuxi, Jiangsu province. He studied oil exploration at the Beijing Petroleum Institute, graduated in 1966, and joined a geology team scouting for wells in Heilongjiang' s Daqing Field, then just starting production.

He remained in the industry, working in exploration and surveying, and in the 1980s became acquainted with Zeng Qinghong. Zeng was then working in the liaison office of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation and would later take up key party roles in Shanghai at a time when Jiang Zemin was serving as its mayor.

In 1985, Zhou was named vice-minister of the Petroleum Industry and stayed there until it was disbanded by the central government, who renamed it the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) in 1988. Over the next decade, he rose through the ranks of the corporation to become general manager, in addition to being the party's top man at the company, before he left in 1998.