This authoritative book on China's oil demand and government policies and practices rests on two essential foundations: first and foremost on the author's considerable knowledge of China's oil situation and prospects, together with his access to Chinese energy literature and data; and secondly, on that insight afforded to him and, therefore, his readers from his fluency in Chinese.The author analyzes the Chinese oil market and the rising pressure on Beijing to reform policies which constrain China's ability to meet soaring demand and to pay for crucial imports at a time of growing political and economic uncertainties. Dr Wang acknowledges the importance of China meeting its growing domestic oil demand, if at all possible, through national production. The sheer weight of China's population, and its burgeoning requirements as industrialization spreads into most regions, dwarfs the needs of others and places unprecedented strain on international oil trades.The author stresses the fact that the outcome is hard to define, yet the time required to tackle the nation's energy needs is not limitless. Moreover, he reminds the reader of the perennial difficulty in meeting widely disparate economic and energy needs in different regions of the vast country.

The key subjects of the book are policy imperatives, market dynamics and regional developments concerning oil and gas, as well as energy as a whole in China. In addition to national policies and issues, the objective of this book is to study China's regional and provincial oil and gas demand, supply and trade, energy balances, and economic development, with projections up till 2020. Particular emphasis will be given to challenges facing the Chinese government in ensuring future oil and gas supplies, energy security, the use of natural gas in coastal provinces for power generation, oil and gas related environmental issues, and the need for foreign investment in the oil and gas sector development. The impact of China's oil market development and imports on the Asia-Pacific region will also be examined. Energy Economy in China also reviews all current and future domestic and international oil and gas pipelines, import plans and emerging new gas markets in China over the next fifteen years.

China's two decades of rapid economic growth have fueled a demand for energy that has outstripped domestic sources of supply. China became a net oil importer in 1993, and the country's dependence on energy imports is expected to continue to grow over the next 20 years, when it is likely to import some 60 percent of its oil and at least 30 percent of its natural gas. China thus is having to abandon its traditional goal of energyself-sufficiency--brought about by a fear of strategic vulnerability--and look abroad for resources. This study looks at the measures that China is taking to achieve energy security and the motivations behind those measures. It considers China's investment in overseas oil exploration and development projects, interest in transnational oil pipelines, plans for a strategic petroleum reserve, expansion of refineries to process crude supplies from the Middle East, development of the natural gas industry, and gradual opening of onshore drilling areas to foreign oil companies. The author concludes that these activities are designed, in part, to reduce the vulnerability of China's energy supply to U.S. power. China's international oil and gas investments, however, are unlikely to bring China theenergy security it desires. China is likely to remain reliant on U.S. protection of the sea-lanes that bring the country most of its energy imports.

This paper presents a simple macroeconomic model of the oil market. The model incorporates features of oil supply such as depletion, endogenous oil exploration and extraction, as well as features of oil demand such as the secular increase in demand from emerging-market economies, usage efficiency, and endogenous demand responses. The model provides, inter alia, a useful analytical framework to explore the effects of: a change in world GDP growth; a change in the efficiency of oil usage; and a change in the supply of oil. Notwithstanding that shale oil production today is more responsive to prices than conventional oil, our analysis suggests that an era of prolonged low oil prices is likely to be followed by a period where oil prices overshoot their long-term upward trend.

This book provides a critical overview of how China’s growing need for oil imports is shaping its international economic and diplomatic strategy and how this affects global political relations and behaviour. It draws together the various dimensions of China’s international energy strategy, and provides insights into the impact of this on China’s growing presence across the world.

In the past 15 years, China has grown from a net exporter of oil into the world's second-largest importer, trailing only the United States. In that time, nationalized oil companies in China have expanded aggressively overseas while the Chinese government engages in active petroleum diplomacy, all to make sure the worldÕs largest country can meet its growing demand for oil.