More than meets the eye as China tops US as biggest crude importer

Launceston, Australia

HOW impressed should you be by China overtaking the United States as the world's largest importer of crude? The answer is quite a bit, but maybe not as much as you thought.

China imported an average 8.55 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first half of 2017, above the 8.12 million bpd by the US, according to government figures from both countries. The obvious takeaway from this is that the data highlights the shifting dynamics of the crude oil market, with Asia replacing the US and Western Europe as the main demand centre, as well as the source of most of the growth in oil consumption. However, this trend has been in play for several years.

All that has changed is we now have a set of numbers that confirm what was already known. What is more important is trying to understand the underlying drivers of Chinese crude demand and how thes…