Kinas nya oljestrategi: Producera mindre

The impact of the petroleum industry in China has been increasing globally as China is "forecast to overtake the U.S. as the world’s biggest crude importer in 2016" and since 2012, has been the fourth-greatest oil producer in the world - surpassing the United States. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) China first became the "world's largest net importer of petroleum and other liquids" by the end of 2013. In 2009 China completed its first critical oil pipeline, the Atyrau-Alashankou oil pipeline (Kazakhstan–China oil pipeline) in Central Asia, as part of a larger overall trade expansion with the Central Asian region which represented a trade volume of over $US $50 billion by 2013, up from $1 billion in 2000. The Economist reported as recently as January 13, 2016 that "China imported a record 6.7m barrels a day (b/d) of oil in 2015." They also reported that as in the United States China's storage tanks seemed to be full "with ships carrying oil spotted waiting at anchor out at sea."