BEJING – China has purchased a stake in BP Plc, marking the country’s second investment in a European oil company. With the purchase, the nation is trying to increase returns on the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves, China Daily reports.

BP welcomes the Chinese investment, spokesman David Nicholas said. The shares bought represented just under 1 percent of BP, the Daily Telegraph reports.

China also has investments in France’s Total SA, Europe’s third-largest oil company, and Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest miner. As commodity prices increase to record levels and its foreign currency reserves advance to $1.68 trillion, China has been purchasing assets around the world.

“It could be the beginning of a wave of investments in major oil companies as oil prices keep racing higher,” said Victor Shum, senior principal at energy consultant Purvin & Gertz Inc. in Singapore. “It shouldn’t raise any political concern, as the Chinese are not gaining management control.”

In 2005, citing national energy security concerns, U.S. lawmakers blocked a big by CNOOC Ltd, China’s biggest offshore oil explorer, to purchase Unocal Corp.