The Liaohe Oil Field is located in the northeast of the Bohai Bay Basin, with its northern, eastern and western parts surrounded by mountains, while the southern part extends into the waters of the Liaodong Bay, in the Liaoning Province of China (which came under the rule of the Japanese-controlled puppet state of Manchukuo after Japan invaded the province in 1931). The total proven reserves of the Liaohe oil field are around 6.87 billion barrels, making this the largest production base for or heavy oil, ultra heavy oil and high pour-point oil in China. IOTL, this oil field was only discovered in 1958, and developed by China National Petroleum Corporation from 1970 onwards.
But remarkably, the Japanese conducted small-scale oil prospecting in the immediate vicinity IOTL, in the early 1930's, and only missed finding the Liaohe Oil Field by a hundred meters or so when drilling in the area. So then, suppose that in an alternate timeline, the Imperial Japanese prospectors try looking just that little bit harder before giving up, drill down just a couple of hundred meters away in the right direction, and discover the Liaohe oil field? Let's say that they discover the Liaohe oil field by the end of 1935. How much of an impact would this discovery, which the Japanese so narrowly missed out on IOTL, have had? What would the consequences be- how much would it have altered policy, and the balance of power, both in East Asia and potentially further afield?