China set to become world’s largest oil importer

US crude imports have plummeted in recent years as producers have pumped more oil out of the Bakken and Eagle Ford shales and drivers have chosen more fuel-efficient vehicles

In China, on the other hand, imports have surged as the economy has expanded and more and more of the country’s 1.3 billion citizens get behind the wheel. As the trends continue, it is only a matter of time before China overtakes the US as the world’s largest oil importer. According to a new report from Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy, that time will come around 2017. China’s oil imports will nearly quadruple in just 15 years from 2.5 million barrels a day (b/d) in 2005 to 9.2m b/d in 2020, according to a Wood Mackenzie forecast. US imports, on the other hand, are forecast to fall from a peak of 10.1m b/d in 2005 to 6.8m b/d in 2020, similar to the volumes it imported in the early 1990s. Wood