Chinese 'teapots' provide edge over US for world's top oil buyer

Shanghai

CHINA's lead over the US as the world's biggest buyer of crude oil is poised to get bigger, and it's largely thanks to teapots.

Dozens of small refiners, known as teapots to those in the industry, account for a third of the Asian nation's processing capacity. They are now expanding as new rules will almost double the amount of crude the refiners, including Shandong Yongxin Energy Group, can import.

America, the world's largest economy, is now the least reliant on foreign oil since 1994, while China is taking advantage of the slump in prices to expand its strategic stockpiles - a strategy that helps it overtake the US as the biggest buyer last month. The flow of oil to Asia will help …