China stocking strategic oil reserves

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=e53bf61f83d3d1b4

Big News Network.com Friday 24th June, 2005 (UPI)

China is close to filling the first of four strategic petroleum storage facilities, planned as part of its quest for energy security, state television reports.

Wang Mingji, a vice chairman at China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., was quoted on CCTV Thursday as saying the country's first 16-tank storage facility, located at the port city of Zhenhai in Zhejiang province, would be filled this year.

China plans to build strategic reserves in three other locations. There will be a second storage facility in Zhejiang at Daishan, an island in the Zhoushan Archipelago. Huangdao district in the port city of Qingdao will have a site, as will Xingang, a coastal town near the major port of Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning province.

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Sounds like China has a unquenchable thirst for oil too!!!

[salminen]

1. more paranoid interpretation

Over the last couple of years, China has started importing as much of the heaviest materials as they can get their hands on and stockpiling them. Specifically, they bought up some 80% of the world's concrete and steel or something like that. The most paranoid interpretation of those actions is that they are acting on the assumption that oil is going to suddenly and dramatically become way more expensive and difficult to get, hence making the import of really heavy raw materials cost prohibitive.

As far as I can see, both the US and China are both acting in ways that can only be explained by concluding that they both believe the oil supply is about to hit it's peak, and oil is suddenly going to become extremely difficult to get. Both the US and China are stockpiling reserves, China is stocking up on fuel-intensive imports, the US is devoting more and more troops to securing oil reserves, pipelines and shipping lanes, China has started patrolling various international waterways that they use to import oil, the US laid the stage in Iraq in such a way that we only share control of the country with Britan, instead of all the other oil-hungry world nations, etc. I have no idea if peak oil really is right around the corner, but it's pretty scary to see the big players getting into position for the scrap over the last drops of the stuff... Especially now that that poll yesterday showed that most of the world favors China over the US... Ug.

[lvx35]

3. Peak Oil

The most interesting thing about this hypothesis is the apparent lack of interest in alternative fuels across the board, with the exception of the EU and a few other countries. Could it be that the major players want to actually exploit the <i>shortage</i> of oil to consoliate global power, rather than find a viable solution to an impending energy crisis? Or is is all just not that bad yet?

[salminen]

5. you are absolutely correct

As far as I can see, the people in power are not making decisions based on our national interest, but rather on the basis of what will benefit the interests they represent. The big oil companies know that the era of oil is coming to an end, but there is still a ton of money to be made in these last decades because the profit margins on oil skyrocket as it gets pricier.

That, combined with the power it will give us internationally makes for a republican's wet dream...

All that being said, one counter argument is that instead of it not being that bad, maybe it is so bad that we don't have enough time to retool the economy to use alternative energy before it hits. Lots of studies say that switching our economy to rely dramatically more on renewable energies will take upwards of 20 years. And, one of the largest uses of oil in the US is actually as a chemical component in plastic, which alternative energies don't solve.

[lvx35]

7. yep

All that being said, one counter argument is that instead of it not being that bad, maybe it is so bad that we don't have enough time to retool the economy to use alternative energy before it hits. Lots of studies say that switching our economy to rely dramatically more on renewable energies will take upwards of 20 years.

I still find it strange that if this is the case, we have held back our nations considerable intellectual strength on the matter by keeping it secret. If it were public knowledge, loads of people would be working on alternative energy across the board coming up with new solutions - but instead, the smart people all tooling around on web programming and such.

If the oil people doing this, I find it hard to believe any one of them can kid themselves into believing that its in the national best interest.

[salminen]

8. oil companies own a lot of the alt energy patents

Oil companies regularly buy up key alternative energy patents, get good press out of 'supporting alternative energy', and then guess what they do? They shelve the patents and refuse to sell rights to use them to anyone. Pretty effective strategy in blocking the progress of alternative energy...

[PATRICK]

6. Sound policy

since it is very risky to bank on the near future with Bushco setting the world on fire. A sudden collapse could happen prematurely because of the PNAC gambit. That is why the rush. Enough of a collapse that is to permanently restrict the flow of oil much less the inevitable soaring cost and economic crisis.

[leesa]

2. Well, this is what Bush has been doing too.

[thecrow]

4. I smell the fetid stench of war.