If you were perhaps wondering why oil prices are strong, this could be one reason.  Here is the full article from the AP:

The Associated Press

April 11, 2008 at 9:10 AM EDT

SHANGHAI — China’s oil imports surged to a record 17.3 million tons in March, the government reported Friday, as the country nearly unseated Japan as the world’s second-largest buyer of foreign crude oil.

China imported an average of just over 4 million barrels a day, according to calculations based on data from China’s Customs Administration.

China imports nearly half of the oil it uses. The United States, which imports about 10 million barrels of oil a day, remains by far the biggest consumer.

Japan imported about 4.4 million barrels of oil a day in February, based on data from the country’s Natural Resources and Energy Agency.

China’s oil imports in the first quarter of this year rose 15 per cent from a year earlier, to 45.5 million tons, the customs data showed.

The value of those imports jumped 91 per cent, year-on-year, to $30-billion (U.S.), as the price of crude oil surged, the customs office said.

An unexpected decline in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories drove oil prices to a trading record of $112.21 a barrel Wednesday. Crude futures held well above $100 a barrel for most of March as a weak dollar prompted investors to buy hard commodities such as oil and gold as a hedge against inflation.

China’s big state-owned energy companies have been buying up assets and expanding co-operation overseas as the country stretches to meet surging demand to fuel the booming economy, which expanded by nearly 12 per cent last year.

Meanwhile, refiners have stepped up imports of crude oil under government pressure to help bridge shortfalls in supplies of diesel and other fuel. Many independent refiners have cut back on production due to mounting losses caused by the widening gap between global crude oil prices and domestically controlled oil products prices.

Hoping to limit reliance on imported oil and gas, Beijing has hastened construction of nuclear power plants and other alternative energy suppliers. It also has made building and filling strategic oil reserves a national strategic priority.

Stagnating production has hindered attempts to boost self reliance in oil. China’s crude oil output is forecast to rise 1.1 per cent in 2008 to 189 million metric tons, down from a 1.6 per cent increase in 2007, according to the China Petroleum and Chemical Association.

Tags: energy investments

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 7:56 pm and is filed under China, India and the Pacific Rim, Price of oil, oil demand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.