[kublikhan]

China recently surpassed the US as the world's largest net oil importer, as the US produces more and consumes less while Chinese demand steadily increases. US net oil imports have fallen from a peak of 13 million barrels per day in October 2006 to under 6 mmb/d in December 2012, according to a Citi research note issued February 28, titled "Milestones Toward US Energy Independence - Alert: US net Oil Imports Plummet to Second Place Behind China."

Meanwhile, since China flipped from a net exporter to a net importer of oil in 1993, its net oil imports have risen steadily to 6.3 mmb/d in January 2013, just under last May's peak," the Citi analysts said in the note.

China Surpasses US as World's Largest Oil Importer

[Plantagenet]

China was already the world's largest CO2 emitter. They might as well be the world's largest oil importer as well

[John_A]

China recently surpassed the US as the world's largest net oil importer, as the US produces more and consumes less while Chinese demand steadily increases. US net oil imports have fallen from a peak of 13 million barrels per day in October 2006 to under 6 mmb/d in December 2012, according to a Citi research note issued February 28, titled "Milestones Toward US Energy Independence - Alert: US net Oil Imports Plummet to Second Place Behind China."

Meanwhile, since China flipped from a net exporter to a net importer of oil in 1993, its net oil imports have risen steadily to 6.3 mmb/d in January 2013, just under last May's peak," the Citi analysts said in the note.

China Surpasses US as World's Largest Oil Importer

Wow. Just wow. This is like some of the best news I've heard of in the recent oil world.

[Graeme]

Data Show China Passing U.S. as Biggest Oil Importer

China has achieved another world-beating status its leaders don’t want: Biggest oil importer.

China passed the United States in September as the world’s biggest net oil importer, driven by faster economic growth and strong auto sales, according to U.S. government data released this week.

Chinese oil consumption outstripped production by 6.3 million barrels per day, which indicates the country had to import that much to fill the gap, the Energy Information Administration said this week.

“China’s steady growth in oil demand has led it to become the world’s largest net oil importer, exceeding the United States in September 2013,’” the agency said in a report. “EIA forecasts this trend to continue through 2014.”

China’s economic boom has raised incomes and increased its global influence. But it also has spurred demand for imported oil and gas, which communist leaders see as a strategic weakness.

Rising auto ownership has left China’s cities choking on smog and added to pressure on Beijing from its own public to curb pollution and from other nations to rein in surging greenhouse gas emissions.



American demand for oil and other liquid fuels rose by about 110,000 barrels per day, or just 0.6 percent, in the first nine months of this year, due partly to improved engine efficiency, the EIA said. It said consumption is forecast to fall by 0.4 percent next year.

Overall, the United States still should be the biggest oil consumer next year at about 18.7 million barrels per day, down from its peak of 20.8 million in 2005, according to the EIA. It said China’s consumption next should be about 11 million barrels per day.

time

[kublikhan]

Japan passes US to become 2nd largest fossil fuel importer. US slips to third place. China is the largest fossil fuel importer.

Japan ranked as the second largest net importer of fossil fuels in the world in 2012, trailing only China. It ranks as the world's largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and second largest importer of coal behind China. Japan has limited domestic energy resources, and the country meets less than 15% of its own total primary energy use from domestic sources. Because of its limited natural gas resources, Japan relies on imports to meet nearly all of its natural gas needs. In 2012, Japan consumed 4.4 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas, up 50% from the 2000 level. More than 95% of Japan's gas demand is met by liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports. Japan, the world's largest LNG importer in 2012, accounted for 37% of global LNG demand in 2012, up from 33% in 2011.

Coal
Domestic coal production ended in 2002, and Japan began importing all of its coal, primarily from Australia. Japan imported 204 million short tons of coal in 2012, a slight increase from 194 million short tons in 2011. Japan had been the largest global coal importer for three decades until 2011, when, according to World Coal Association estimates, China surpassed Japan by a narrow margin. By 2012, this gap widened as Chinese coal imports grew.

Japan passes US to become 2nd largest fossil fuel importer

U.S. is overtaking Russia as the largest oil and gas producer. U.S. imports of natural gas and crude oil have fallen 32 percent and 15 percent respectively in the past five years, narrowing the U.S. trade deficit.

Oil & Gas Should Transcend Party Politics

[Subjectivist]

Anyone have current figures for how much every country imports around the planet? America and China are one and two, but last I heard India was growing rapidly and working its way up the list.

[kublikhan]

Here's the top 3 with the most recent data. India is still in a distant 3rd place.

gross imports = total oil imports
net imports = gross imports - exports

Oil imports:
China: 7.77 mmbpd gross imports 6.08 mmbpd net imports
US:10.2 mmbpd gross imports 4.9 mmbpd net imports
India: 4.45 mmbpd gross imports 3.1 mmbpd net imports

Other countries can be found here. The data is older though and it looks likes its only gross imports, no net import info.

[Tanada]

I find this list slightly puzzling,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... il_imports

Not because the information is from such a scatter shot of dates, but because the only 'region' listed separately in the EU. Perhaps it is just me but I would find it useful to see continental style regions listed in addition to the EU, North America, Asia, Africa and South America. With the exception of Antarctica that has only researchers and Australia that is a single country continent each of the others has a mix of importers and exporters. Asia for example has China, India, Japan, South Korea, The Philippines which rank 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 in imports. On the other side of the coin Asia also has Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait, the worlds largest exporting countries. So where does Asia fall in the total imports/exports metric?

[shortonoil]

"China passed the United States in September as the world’s biggest net oil importer, driven by faster economic growth and strong auto sales, according to U.S. government data released this week."

China is also the world's largest exporter of money; capital out flows from China are now more than $1 trillion per year, or about 10% of its GDP. China is hemorrhaging to death rapidly. It doesn't look likely that China's petroleum demand growth will continue for very long. Other Asian nations appear to be experiencing the same phenomena. As Asian demand declines so also will world production, and production accounts for the largest part of world demand. It is also the single largest percentage of world GDP. Once production begins to fall it will have entered a negative feedback loop that will continue to feed upon itself.

http://www.thehillsgroup.org/

[Subjectivist]

Here's the top 3 with the most recent data. India is still in a distant 3rd place.

gross imports = total oil imports
net imports = gross imports - exports

Oil imports:
China: 7.77 mmbpd gross imports 6.08 mmbpd net imports
US:10.2 mmbpd gross imports 4.9 mmbpd net imports
India: 4.45 mmbpd gross imports 3.1 mmbpd net imports

Other countries can be found here. The data is older though and it looks likes its only gross imports, no net import info.

Great info! Thanks very much appreciated!

[kublikhan]

I find this list slightly puzzling,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... il_imports

Not because the information is from such a scatter shot of dates, but because the only 'region' listed separately in the EU. Perhaps it is just me but I would find it useful to see continental style regions listed in addition to the EU, North America, Asia, Africa and South America. With the exception of Antarctica that has only researchers and Australia that is a single country continent each of the others has a mix of importers and exporters. Asia for example has China, India, Japan, South Korea, The Philippines which rank 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 in imports. On the other side of the coin Asia also has Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait, the worlds largest exporting countries. So where does Asia fall in the total imports/exports metric?

Asia Pacific is usually broken out as a separate region from the middle east and FSU in terms of oil consumption/imports:

Asia’s net oil imports surpassed the total amount of oil consumed in North America in 2015. The gap between oil production and demand has jumped over 30 percent since 2010 to an estimated 25.7 million bpd in 2016 and is set to grow by another 1.1 million bpd next year. Rising oil prices, however, means the cost could soar by a third in just one year to $566 billion.

But oil demand in the Asia-Pacific is expected to grow by 800,000-900,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year and next, while the region’s output could shrink by 240,000-330,000 bpd during the same period.

Consultancy Wood Mackenzie expects Asia’s oil production to fall to 5 million barrels per day in 2025 from 7.6 million bpd in 2016.

Rising Oil Import Costs May Become Asia's Growing Pain

Also Pstarr's link has data on the Asia Pacific region as well:


If you wanted to look at combined Asia Pacific + Middle East data there is a graph here. It's old data though.

[Tanada]

China imports as of February this year from the EIA,



Anyone claiming massive demand destruction is clearly using some funky data.

[ROCKMAN]

T - The thread title is a tad misleading. A better title would be "China's internal consumption of imported oil greatly exceeds that of the US". Once imported oil lands in the US it becomes indistinguishable from domestic oil with respect to the stats. Especially when heavy oil imports are blended with lighter domestic oil production. In recent years US exports of refinery products have surged to very high levels. We now export more the 4 million bopd in the form of refinery products. The focus should be on the net imports CONSUMED in the US.

Bottom line: the US is not "consuming" nearly as much oil as is commonly reported. Those consumption stats include oil being "consumed" by our refineries and then exported in the form of products.

[AdamB]

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Petroleum Supply Monthly and Weekly Petroleum Status Report, China General Administration of Customs, based on Bloomberg, L.P. Note: December U.S. imports derived from weekly crude oil imports. China surpassed the United States in annual gross crude oil imports in 2017, importing 8.4 million barrels per day (b/d) compared with 7.9 million b/d for the United States. China had become the world’s largest net importer (imports minus exports) of total petroleum and other liquid fuels in 2013. New refinery capacity and strategic inventory stockpiling combined with declining domestic oil production were the major factors contributing to the recent increase in China’s crude oil imports. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Petroleum Supply Monthly and Weekly Petroleum Status Report, China General Administration of Customs, based on Bloomberg, L.P. Note: December U.S. imports derived from weekly crude oil imports. In 2017, 56%

China surpassed the United States as the world’s largest crude oil importer in 2017

[kublikhan]

US net oil imports continue to fall sharply. US slips to 5th largest net petroleum importer. It falls behind India, Japan, and South Korea.

Code: Select all

Oil & oil product imports by country(million barrels per day)
Country Gross   Net
China   10.2    9.0
India    5.0    3.8
Japan    3.7    3.1
S Korea  3.6    2.0
US       9.7    1.6

Sources:
China:
China Petroleum Imports & Exports

India:
India Petroleum Imports
India Petroleum Exports

Japan:
Japan Petroleum Imports & Exports

South Korea:
South Korea Crude Oil imports
South Korea petroleum product imports
South Korea petroleum product exports

United States:
US Gross Petroleum Imports
US Net Petroleum Imports

[Outcast_Searcher]

US net oil imports continue to fall sharply. US slips to 5th largest net petroleum importer. It falls behind India, Japan, and South Korea.

Code: Select all

Oil & oil product imports by country(million barrels per day)
Country Gross   Net
China   10.2    9.0
India    5.0    3.8
Japan    3.7    3.1
S Korea  3.6    2.0
US       9.7    1.6

Looking at the production numbers, not too surprising.

It looks like Japan produces on the order of one thousandth of the oil they consume, and South Korea about one hundredth. India does better, but it's still in the ballpark of only a tenth.

https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/crude-oil-production

https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/South- ... roduction/