America is China's new best friend in the oil market

London

THERE is a new kid on the block, muscling in on crude sales to China. America is rapidly carving out a niche for itself, stepping in to fill the gap left by falling supplies from Opec countries. As recently as last year, US crude-oil exports to China were negligible. On average in 2016, companies shipped just 10,000 barrels a day to China - that's less than two supertankers during the whole year.

The US ranked 32nd in the list of Chinese import sources in 2016, according to data from the Ch…