Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
Nvidia Numero Uno in Count Down to President Donald Pump Election Victory - 5th Nov 24
Trump or Harris - Who Wins US Presidential Election 2024 Forecast Prediction - 5th Nov 24
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24
US House Prices Trend Forecast 2024 to 2026 - 11th Oct 24
US Housing Market Analysis - Immigration Drives House Prices Higher - 30th Sep 24
Stock Market October Correction - 30th Sep 24
The Folly of Tariffs and Trade Wars - 30th Sep 24
Gold: 5 principles to help you stay ahead of price turns - 30th Sep 24
The Everything Rally will Spark multi year Bull Market - 30th Sep 24
US FIXED MORTGAGES LIMITING SUPPLY - 23rd Sep 24
US Housing Market Free Equity - 23rd Sep 24
US Rate Cut FOMO In Stock Market Correction Window - 22nd Sep 24
US State Demographics - 22nd Sep 24
Gold and Silver Shine as the Fed Cuts Rates: What’s Next? - 22nd Sep 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks:Nothing Can Topple This Market - 22nd Sep 24
US Population Growth Rate - 17th Sep 24
Are Stocks Overheating? - 17th Sep 24
Sentiment Speaks: Silver Is At A Major Turning Point - 17th Sep 24
If The Stock Market Turn Quickly, How Bad Can Things Get? - 17th Sep 24
IMMIGRATION DRIVES HOUSE PRICES HIGHER - 12th Sep 24
Global Debt Bubble - 12th Sep 24
Gold’s Outlook CPI Data - 12th Sep 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

China’s Worst nightmare--The US Oil Weapon

Politics / GeoPolitics Sep 05, 2015 - 04:46 PM GMT

By: Submissions

Politics

Tingbin Zhang writes: China’s islanding building on the four-mile-long and two-mile-wide Subi Reef in the South China Sea has put The US in a tight spot. To protect its ally from China’s aggression, The US will be left with little choice but to constrain China by military means. However, the US won't directly engage China in the war in the foreseeable future, because the US dominates China with its superior naval and air force and the only way for China to level the playing field is to apply nuclear weapons. The nuclear nature of Sino-American warfare will make both the world no.1 and no.2 economy the fallen giants.


So There is a possibility that The US might use its oil weapon instead to strike at the core of China’s weakness--it’s huge dependence on oil import. At the moment, China imports 55% of its oil, almost half of which sails from countries in the Persian Gulf,which accounts to 5.3 Million Barrels per Day and is around 75% of Saudi Arabia’s production. As the matter of fact, China’s reliance on Middle Eastern oil has gradually grown in line with its rapid-increasing demand for oil. Right now, China has achieved the equivalent of the peak of U.S. Oil import dependence and is not slowing down a bit. The single largest source of China's crude oil imports is Saudi Arabia.

China’s state oil reserves of 475,900,000 barrels (75,660,000 m3) plus the enterprise oil reserves of 209,440,000 barrels (33,298,000 m3) will only provide around 90 days of consumption or a total of 684,340,000 barrels (108,801,000 m3).

Meanwhile, This US is inching towards the energy independence. With the technological breakthroughs of shale gas and tight oil, the US has started an energy revolution: U.S. crude oil production has increased by 50% since 2008. With that increase, as well as more efficient cars, oil imports have come down from their high of 60% in 2005 to 35% today—as low as in 1973. With domestic production and gasoline mileage still increasing, imports will continue to decrease. It’s also impressive that U.S. natural gas production has increased by nearly 33% since 2005, and shale gas has gone from 2% of output in 2000 to 44% today.

As of 2013, the United States is the world's second largest producer of crude oil, after Saudi Arabia, and second largest exporter of refined products, after Russia.According to BP Plc’s Statistical Review of World Energy, the U.S. has surpassed Russia as the biggest oil and natural-gas producer in 2014. While looking at total energy, the U.S. was over 70% self-sufficient in 2008. In May 2011, the US became a net exporter of refined petroleum products.

With the newly acquired oil might, the US can trick Iran to block the Strait of Hormuz without any economic damage onto the US itself, in order to strike a severe blow to China’s fragile economy. First, The US congress will reject the Iran nuclear deal; and second, The US will give the nod to Isreal’s air strike against tehran’s nuclear facilities. And then, Iran will retaliate by blocking the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. Once it’s blocked, China will scramble to meet its oil demands. In China, the inflation will jump up; the China yuan will plummet, and an economic meltdown will come to bear.

China will succumb to the US’s might of oil weapon to save itself from political, economic and social collapse. The oil weapon will achieve what the military can’t achieve at less cost. This scenario is something China should be really worried about.

Tingbin Zhang

Chief Strategist

Zhonghua Yuan Institute

© 2015 Copyright Tingbin Zhang - All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.


© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in