Worried Washington Watches China's Booming Oil Demand - Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "China's global quest for crude oil is acceptable as long as the Asian nation develops the deposits and doesn't hoard them, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday. China, the world's second-biggest oil user behind the United States, has recently scoured the globe for oil deals in Canada, Latin America and Africa.

Rapid Chinese oil demand growth was one of the factors that pushed U.S. crude oil futures above $55 a barrel. "China's energy needs are going to be enormous in the future," said Christopher Hill, the State Department's assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific. "The question is, are they looking to develop energy or are they looking to take it off the market," Hill told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing on China's growing economic might.

China consumes more than 7 million barrels per day of crude oil, versus U.S. consumption of about 20 million bpd. State-run Chinese companies have spent billions of dollars on oil assets overseas to boost supplies for a country that imports 40 percent of its energy needs. In written testimony, Hill voiced concern about China's willingness to deal with nations frowned upon by the United States, including Iran and Sudan.

EDIT

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who chairs the East Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee, said the United States faces growing competition from China in Canada, which is the biggest U.S. oil exporter. Canadian and Chinese firms are cooperating to build a $2 billion pipeline to ship crude from Canada's vast oil sands in Alberta to the West Coast to be sent via tanker to China. "China has brought the competition for natural resources to our backyard," Murkowski said."

EDIT

Gee, Lisa, I thought the "free market" was all about competition. Are you trying to say that it isn't?

http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=communique&newsid=8667

They must now hate us for our oligarchy.

:hi:

our way out of it.



But, if we're going to have to research, develop, design, and engineer - like, where are we going to the engineers, chemists, and geologists. They're all over here from China learning the business themselves.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls --- we have passed the points where tax incentives and depletion allowances and all of that Big Business and Inside the Beltway mumbo jumbo will do us any good. It's time for a good solid dose of engineering and science. Something we OUTSOURCED TO CHINA

P.S. Charles Darwin says "Hi!"

like ignoring WTO and ICJ judgements that happen to fall in Canada's favour, they may lose their access to Canadian oil in favour of a country that lives up to international agreements...

And if they do not stop demonizing democratically elected leaders from oil-rich nations like Hugo Chavez, they may lose access to Venezuelan oil, also...

Canada is #2 exporter of oil to the US, and Venezuela is #3...hmmmmm....