China Surpasses The US In Net Oil Imports -- Again -- May 11, 2015

Financial Times posted this story yesterday, May 10, 2015: China oil imports surpass those of US.

In the original headline (in bold, above), the Financial Times said this was the first time it had ever happened. I did not get a screen shot unfortunately; now they've changed the headline, omitting that part about this being "a first."

Ah, good luck: FT can change their story, but can't change URLs. From google, this screen shot:

The first three paragraphs:

China overtook the US as the world’s biggest importer of crude oil in April, the culmination of a seismic shift in global energy flows over the past decade.

Chinese customs data showed crude oil purchases from overseas hit a new high of 7.4m barrels a day in April, equivalent to roughly one in every 13 barrels consumed globally and topping US imports of 7.2m b/d. The US routinely exports about 500,000 b/d.

While China’s imports are not expected to consistently surpass those of the US until the second half of this year, the move illustrates how the US shale revolution has cut the country’s reliance on oil from overseas — and how China’s demand has grown even as its economy slows.

From MarketWatch, May 10, 2015:

China has now surpassed the U.S. as the world’s largest importer of crude oil, according to a report Sunday by the Financial Times. Chinese customs statistics for April showed the nation imported 30.29 million metric tons of crude oil (roughly 222 million barrels), marking a 13% jump from March.

The total would be equivalent to 7.4 million barrels per day, accounting for about 1 in every 13 barrels consumed worldwide and overtaking the U.S., with imports of 7.2 million barrels a day, according to Financial Times calculations.

In fact, the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration put U.S. imports even lower, at an average of 7.11 million and 7.15 million barrels of crude oil per day in February and January, respectively. The gain for Chinese imports contrasted with China’s exports of crude oil, which fell 41% during April to 440,000 metric tons.

But a google search revealed this story posted by the same newspaper, Financial Times, back on March 4, 2013: China becomes world's top oil importer. Here are the first three paragraphs --

China has overtaken the US as the world’s largest net importer of oil, in a generational shift that will shake up the geopolitics of natural resources.

US net oil imports dropped to 5.98m barrels a day in December, the lowest since February 1992, according to provisional figures from the US Energy Information Administration. In the same month, China’s net oil imports surged to 6.12m b/d, according to Chinese customs.

The US has been the world’s largest net importer of oil since the mid-1970s, shaping Washington’s foreign policy towards energy-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Venezuela.

As China overtakes the US as the world’s leading net oil importer, Beijing is likely to face pressure to take a larger role in patrolling the world’s key shipping lanes. China has already taken a more assertive foreign oil policy in countries such as Sudan, Angola and Iraq, where state-owned Chinese companies have invested billions of dollars.

he shift between China and the US comes as the International Energy Agency, the western countries’ oil watchdog, forecast that emerging countries would for the first time consume more oil than industrialized nations . The Paris-based IEA forecast that non-OECD countries will consume 44.9m b/d next quarter, compared with 44.7m b/d for the OECD nations.

The US remains the world’s largest net oil importer on an annual basis, but the margin over China has narrowed significantly over the last five years. The country’s net foreign purchases of crude and refined products dropped to a 20-year low of 7.14m b/d in 2012, while Chinese net oil imports averaged 5.72m b/d.

Daily Finance was also reporting this as far back as 2013, that China would surpass the US as world's biggest importer:

China could soon overtake the U.S. as the biggest importer of oil in the world. The oil cartel OPEC says the shift could happen as early as next year.

The reason is that the shale oil boom here at home has dramatically increased domestic production, reducing the need to import as much oil as we have been for the past several decades.

The U.S. based Energy Information Administration says Chinese imports could top 6 million barrels a day this year, while U.S. imports fall below that level next year.

And this from the EIA on March 24,  2014:

In September 2013, China's net imports of petroleum and other liquids exceeded those of the United States on a monthly basis, making it the largest net importer of crude oil and other liquids in the world. The rise in China's net imports of petroleum and other liquids is driven by steady economic growth, with rapidly rising Chinese petroleum demand outpacing production growth. 

So, a number of story lines (with the caveat that I did this quickly and may have misread something):

• it looks like the headline that China surpassed the US for the first time in imported oil was an error, and both the headline and the lede were changed
• china has been close to surpassing the US in imported crude oil for quite some time now
• there are different ways of calculating "imported oil" as suggest by the EIA link
• this should end speculation that China is running out of storage space
• a 13% jump in Chinese imports month-over-month is not trivial
• add this data point to the fact that China is stimulating their economy through rate cuts (reported this weekend, today)