An (Oil Price) Shocking Global Recession?

At the end of the day, you’ve got two very large consumers [the United States and China] competing over the same sandbox.

—Gal Luft, Institute for the Analysis of Global Security

Any discussion of China’s growing thirst for oil must first acknowledge that the biggest guzzler of global oil is the United States. With less than 5% of the world’s population, the United States annually consumes about 25% of the world’s oil production. In comparison, with fully 20% of the world’s population, China currently consumes only about 7% of the world’s oil. However, as China’s economy continues to grow rapidly, so, too, will its oil consumption and share of the world oil market—even as the U.S. share of that market ...

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