The Petroleum Import Strategy:A Comparison Between China And America

Petroleum is one of the most important primary energy sources in the world.It accounts for one-third of the total supply and forty percent of the world's total energy consumption.Both China and America put great emphasis on petroleum import for strategic purposes.China did not have external demands for oil before its economic take-off while the US has a longer history of petroleum importation.China's oil importing is conducted by several central government departments and supported by three major national oil companies while the US's oil imports have more participants from the private sector.US's oil import strategy has been well established and secures its energy security while China,with a different pathway in oil import strategy,has grown to be the major petroleum importer in the world.And China needs to improve its petroleum import strategy regarding energy security.Energy security means simply availability of sufficient supplies at affordable prices.In contains three levels:sufficient supply,stable price,and sustainable development.As a matter of fact,fuel energy will continue to be the dominant energy source in the near future.So the major task in the energy security is to ensure the the stable price,sufficient supply,and sustainable development of oil and gas.Crude oil and other petroleum products are traded in the world market due to the gap between the gap between oil consumption and production.Both China and the US rely heavily on the foreign oil.the US's foreign oil dependence will drop to 52 percent in 2035 while China's will climb to 84 percent by that year.The US's energy strategy is guiding the country away from its reliance on fossil fuel and towards a sustainable energy system with greater energy independence.The policies includes establishing Strategic Petroleum Reserves,improving domestic industry structure,encouraging energy efficiency,diversification of oil imports and energy mix,and currency depreciation to offset rising oil prices.On the other hand,China has the problem of high foreign oil dependence.In addition,the country lacks SPR developments and has to face the complex situation of oil diplomacy,instability of petroleum sources,and uncertainty of global oil prices.China and the US compete and cooperate in the petroleum security field.On one hand,their common ground of relying on foreign oil pushes them together to maintain a stable and organized world oil market.They also apply the same policy such as diversification of oil import sources to ensure a safe energy supply.In addition,both China and the US confront the potential risk of a shortage of oil supply due to the unpredictable political and economic crises in oil producing areas.They have to compete with each other to keep reliable relationships with major oil importing countries.This thesis has argued that the China's establishment of SPR has been helped by its bilateral dialogue with the US.Cooperation rather than competition should be the mainstream of Sino-US energy relationship.China's SPR building is one example of cooperation.And Sea Line of Communication protection can serve as the next one in mutual relationship strengthening.