China Can't Shake Its Addiction To US Crude

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

Forbes
Ariel Cohen
Aug 15, 2018, 12:32pm

[excerpt]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2018/08/15/china-cant-shake-its-addiction-to-us-crude/#30b6a82b6807

The U.S. – China trade war got a bit more interesting Monday as Beijing announced that it would exempt U.S. oil from its latest round of retaliatory sanctions. Despite numerous threats from The People’s Republic to impose punitive import duties on West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude – a response to the Trump Administration’s July tariffs targeting $36 billion in Chinese products – oil is safe, for now.

Other U.S. energy exports were not so lucky. U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG), coal, and refined petroleum products such as diesel and gasoline, will join $16 billion in American goods expected to be hit with a 25% import duty effective August 23rd.

Beijing’s tariff mandate is a tit-for-tat rejoinder to the second tranche of tariffs levied by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) last week, which targets – you guessed it – $16 billion in PRC products with a 25% import duty. The Chinese are nothing if not proportionate in their retribution.

[catfish1957]

I had thought the Chicoms signed a huge deal with Russia for hydrocarbon import.  Maybe the project hasn't been completed yet.

[thackney]

I had thought the Chicoms signed a huge deal with Russia for hydrocarbon import.  Maybe the project hasn't been completed yet.

Russia won't come close to meeting their need alone.



Several factors are driving the increase in China’s crude oil imports. China had the largest decline in domestic petroleum and other liquids production among non-OPEC countries in 2016, and EIA estimates it will have had the second-largest decline in 2017. Total liquids production in China averaged 4.8 million b/d in 2017, a year-over-year decline of 0.1 million b/d (2%) from 2016, and further declines in both 2018 and 2019 are forecasted in EIA’s January 2018 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO).

In contrast to declining domestic production, EIA estimates that growth in China's consumption of petroleum and other liquid fuels in 2017 was the world’s largest for the ninth consecutive year, growing 0.4 million b/d (3%) to 13.2 million b/d. As China has built up inventories of strategic petroleum reserves, China’s crude oil imports have increased faster than their domestic consumption.

China surpassed the United States as the world’s largest crude oil importer in 2017
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=34812

[Suppressed]

They're smart, and don't shoot themselves in the foot!