JAKARTA - Amid the war between Iran and the United States and Israel and the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, China considers its energy supply to be safe in the short term. China Daily, quoted Thursday, March 11, reported that large strategic oil reserves and increasingly diverse supply lines make Beijing able to survive if crude oil supplies from the Middle East are cut off completely.
The Strait of Hormuz is an important route for about 20 percent of the world's oil. In the event that the route is effectively closed, experts quoted by China Daily believe that China can still avoid a fuel crisis in the near future.
China's General Administration of Customs recorded crude oil imports in January and February rose 16 percent to 96.93 million tons. Last year, China's crude oil imports reached 578 million tons, up 4.4 percent. The largest supply came from Russia 17.4 percent, Saudi Arabia 14 percent, and Iraq 11.2 percent.
The Columbia University Global Center for Energy Policy estimates China's strategic oil reserves at around 1.4 billion barrels or 190 million tons. Senior researcher Erica Downs said that in a worst-case scenario when the Middle East supply is completely cut off, the stock can support China's needs for about six months.
China Daily also quoted OCBC's analysis which assessed that China's economy remained resilient amid turmoil because its structural dependence on oil continued to decline. Supporting factors include the growth of electric vehicles, the use of coal for chemical raw materials, and a relatively unaffected power generation system.
Kpler data shows more than 14 million barrels of oil per day passed through the Strait of Hormuz last year, equivalent to about a third of the world's crude oil exports by sea. About three-quarters of the flow went to China, India, Japan, and South Korea.
Although China's dependence on imported oil is still above 70 percent, crude oil only accounts for 18.2 percent of the country's total energy consumption by 2024. In addition to relying on large reserves, Beijing is also strengthening land supply routes through the China-Russia and China-Kazakhstan oil pipelines.
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