According to the recent statistics from General Administration of Customs, Angola is replacing Saudi Arabia as the largest oil exporter to China. In the first quarter of 2008, China imported 8.48 million tons of crude oil from Angola, a year-over-year growth of 55.1%, while the purchase from Saudi Arabia was 8.18 million tons, with a daily average of 0.68 million barrels. In the past 6 years, Saudi Arabia has been the leading provider of crude oil to China. In 2007, Saudi’s oil export was 26.33 million tons, or 0.528 million barrels. Although China is the second largest energy consumers around the world, it still heavily relies on coal as the main energy source. The crude oil consists 20% of the country’s total energy needs.
Source: Oriental Morning Post, April 23, 2008
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