Bloomberg. China, the world’s second-biggest crude oil consumer, and the world’s fastest growing major economy, imported 31 percent more crude oil in December 2004 than a year earlier.

Oil imports rose to 12.1 million metric tons, or 2.9 million barrels a day, from 9.3 million tons a year earlier, the Beijing-based Customs General Administration of China said today. Import growth slowed from 46 percent in November. For the full year, oil imports rose 35 percent to 122.7 million tons, at a cost of $33.9 billion, 71 percent more than in 2003.

China’s oil imports may rise “at a level of around 30 percent for the next 3 years” as domestic production increases less than 1 percent annually, said Michael Lee, a Hong Kong-based oil and gas analyst at UOB-Kay Hian Ltd.

Earlier this week, the IEA nudged up its forecasted oil demand in China from its prior estimate on 10 Dec 2004.

Oil demand from China that rose almost 16 percent to a record 6.72 million barrels a day in November may signal a possible return to annual growth of more than 10 percent, said the IEA. China's oil demand last had double-digit growth in the first half of 2004, the report said.

In the event that such demand growth does occur, suppliers may have a hard time keeping up with demand—and even the most aggressive forecasts of peaking put it a couple of years away.

Almost every day now brings news items related to China’s and India’s pursuit of global partnerships to help them obtain and then secure their energy supplies.