China to surpass U.S. as biggest oil importer

China in October will become the world’s largest importer of crude oil, surpassing the U.S. for the first time as the Asian giant’s rising consumer class of drivers grows increasingly thirsty for fuel, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

China already is the largest importer of oil from the troubled Middle East, taking away a distinction that plagued the U.S. since the 1970s. Its ascendance as the world’s largest importer — even as U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil declines to negligible levels — could transform the geopolitics of the region and the world as the focus of global defense efforts for decades has been keeping open the vital oil transport lines leading from the Persian Gulf, analysts say.

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Patrice Hill, The Washington Times via CHINA US Focus http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaUsFocus/~3/1XPfpkTVSVI/