China's consumption is rising at an alarming rate. For all of 2010, China consumed an average of 8.71 million barrels per day of oil. By December, 2010, China's rate of consumption reached 9.3 barrels of oil per day. An oil industry group, FACTS Global Energy, has estimated that China's oil demand will increase to an average of 9.5 million barrels per day for 2011. Compare that to 2008, when China consumed an estimated 7.8 million barrels per day of oil, moving it into position as the second-largest oil consumer in the world behind the United States. During that same year, China produced an estimated 4.0 million barrels per day of oil, of which 96 percent was crude oil. China’s net oil imports were approximately 3.8 million barrels per day in 2008, making it the third-largest net oil importer in the world behind the U.S. and Japan. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that China’s oil consumption will continue to grow. World energy consumption, led by China, (projected in December 2010 by the EIA), will reach 87.78 million barrels a day in 2011. Chinese oil demand reached 8.71 million barrels per day in 2010, and is projected to reach 9.5 million barrels per day in 2011. While a graph of projected US oil usage shows a gradual rise over the years, China’s projected oil usage looks more like a hockey stick, with China projected to consume over 30 million barrels of oil per day by 2020. Where will that oil come from?
According to FACTS Global Energy, of the crude the oil imported by China in 2010, approximately 50% came from the Middle East, and 30% came from Africa. The other 20% percent came from the Asia-Pacific region, and other countries. Like India, China’s two largest suppliers are Saudi Arabia and Iran, in that order, followed by Angola and Russia. China has been developing a Strategic Petroleum Reserve and commercial storage to ensure oil reserves. The first phase of China’s SPR was completed in early 2009, and has a total storage capacity of 103 million barrels. Capacity will amount to approximately 25 days of net oil imports based on 2008 estimates of Chinese oil demand. The second phase of China’s SPR is expected to increase capacity to almost 270 million barrels by 2011. China’s goal is to complete a third
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