The U.S. Energy Information Administration or eia provides a basic overview, data and analysis of various countries.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/countries/country-energy-data.cfm?fips=CH

The U.S. Energy Information Administration or eia provides a basic overview, data and analysis of various countries.

As many of already know and according to the eia, China is the world’s second-largest consumer of oil behind the United States, and for the first time the second-largest net importer of oil in 2009. In addition China is the largest producer and consumer of coal in the world, making China the second largest energy consumer behind the United States. This is due to the fact that China has the world’s highest population and is steadily growing at an enormous rate.

Upon further investigation of the site I learned that “China consumed an estimated 8.3 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil in 2009, up nearly 500 million bbl/d from year earlier levels. During that same year, China
produced an estimated 4.0 million bbl/d of total oil liquids, of which 96 percent was crude oil.” In addition the “EIA forecasts that China’s oil consumption will continue to grow during 2010 and 2011, with oil demand reaching almost 9.6 million bbl/d in 2011. This anticipated growth of over 1.2 million bbl/d between 2009 and 2011 represents about 37 percent of projected world oil demand growth during the 2-year period according to the September 2010 Short-Term Energy Outlook. By contrast, China’s oil production is forecast to rise by about 150 thousand bbl/d to nearly 4.2 million bbl/d in 2011. In the longer term, EIA’s International Energy Outlook projects Chinese demand of liquids fuels to rise to around 17 million bbl/d by 2035. According to Oil & Gas Journal (OGJ), China had 20.4 billion barrels of proven oil reserves as of January 2010, up over 4 billion barrels from the prior year.” With China’s consumption of fuels particularly of oil growing at the rate this is has, it is no surprise that China is seeking to increase its oil sources and become independent from the United States and other OPEC nations that currently supply China with much of it’s oil.

Currently China gets the majority of its oil from onshore drilling. ” Roughly 85 percent of Chinese oil production capacity is located onshore” the other “15 percent of overall Chinese oil production is from offshore reserves, and most of China’s net oil production growth will likely come from offshore fields. “The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), which is responsible for offshore oil exploration and production, has seen its role expand as a result of growing attention to offshore zones.”

Due to the fact that China is expanding it will have no other choice than to go overseas to get it’s oil. “With China's expectation of growing future dependence on oil imports and the need for diversification of energy supply sources, Chinese NOCs have sought interests in E&P projects overseas. CNPC has been the most active company, while Sinopec, CNOOC, and other smaller NOCs have also expanded their overseas investment profile.”

China has begun to look overseas and invest heavily in these endeavors. ” From October 2008 to December 2009, the major Chinese national oil companies (NOCs) invested nearly $17 billion for direct acquisition of oil and gas assets from other companies, illustrating a significant increase from the prior decade. Also, Chinese NOCs secured bilateral loan-for-oil deals amounting to almost $70 billion with several countries according to PFC Energy.” “China finalized loan for oil deals recently with Russia, Brazil, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Ecuador and agreed to a loan of $3 billion to Turkmenistan to assist in developing the South Iolotan gas field project to feed the Central Asia Gas Pipeline.” “Overseas equity oil production represented roughly 23 percent of China’s total oil production in 2008.”

“The Middle East remains the largest source of China’s crude oil imports, although African countries also contribute a significant amount to China’s crude oil imports. According to FACTS Global Energy, China imported 4 million bbl/d of crude oil in 2009, of which approximately 2 million bbl/d (50 percent) came from the Middle East, 1.2 million bbl/d (30 percent) from Africa, 184,000 bbl/d (5 percent) from the Asia-Pacific region, and 686,000 bbl/d (17 percent) came from other countries.”

“In 2009, Saudi Arabia and Angola were China’s two largest sources of oil imports, together accounting for over one-third of China’s total crude oil imports.”

China also runs pipelines from various countries. “China inaugurated its first transnational oil pipeline in May 2006 when it began receiving Kazakh and Russian oil from a pipeline originating in Kazakhstan. The new 200,000 bbl/d pipeline spans 620 miles, connecting Atasu in northern Kazakhstan with Alashankou on the Chinese border in Xinjiang. “

So what does all of this information tell us? Well according to the eia China is rapidly expanding and is utilizing the support and resources from various other countries, in Europe, Africa and the Middle East to do so. China is becoming a super power in the field of oil allocation and will continue to do so as long as the countries flourishes and there is oil to be had.