A few days ago, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that the United States managed to overtake Russia as the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas. However, the leadership struggle is still going on. Now, China has outperformed the U.S. in terms of crude oil exports.
The momentous event took place this week and was widely anticipated by analysts. The rankings of the world's top crude oil producers experienced shifts with China catching up and overtaking America.
For Russia, it is a long-awaited event as it directly reflects the China’s need for hydrocarbons which Moscow is planning to meet and capitalize on.
This is especially since the two nations are geographically close and have good political relations. However, there is a bad news for China. The U.S. bumps up its own shale oil production, thus leading to a potential decline in world commodity prices. It is important to understand that being the world's largest importer does not mean being the top consuming country: Americans all the same produce and consume a lot more oil than Chinese people. Despite the fact that British Petroleum says that China is likely to take the first place by 2030, a lot can happen in the 15 years to come. Currently, the black gold production exceeds consumption by about 260 barrels per day and in early 2014 overproduction is seen again.
