September 05, 2014

China surpasses the US as biggest importer of Middle East oil

located:	China, USA
editor:	FairPlanet Editorial Team

China now buys more crude oil from the Middle East than the US, and this is set to have a big impact on geopolitics in the region.

Today China imports around 5.6 million barrels per day, with about half of that coming from the Persian Gulf.

Meanwhile, the US imports about 5 million barrels today, and is steadily reducing how much comes from the Gulf - currently about 41 percent. The US's oil imports increasingly come from Canada and Mexico.

Papers from the Brookings Institution say this shift is set to change-up geopolitical pressures around the world:

"American strategists, meanwhile, may be tempted to fulfill Chinese fears and use energy as a source of pressure on its most significant rival. Others will see an opportunity to disengage from the Middle East during a period of fiscal austerity, leaving Beijing and Delhi to take responsibility for the troubled region."

Map from the Brookings Institution