CHINA REELS UNDER FUEL SHORTAGES AS DEMAND BOOMS

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://origin.rfaweb.org/front/article.html?service=eng&encoding=10&id=121695

Many of China's major cities—including the country's economic showcase, Shanghai—are struggling with fuel shortages in the face of skyrocketing demand for oil products, RFA reports.

A diesel fuel shortage in Shanghai is the latest sign of trouble in China's energy market as the country's demand for oil races far ahead of forecasts.

Filling stations have run short of diesel throughout the past month in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as well as Guangdong Province, according to reports in the official Chinese media. Supplies of gasoline are also said to be tight.

The news came at the same time as a report by the official Xinhua news agency that the Chinese oil companies Sinopec and PetroChina had announced plans to export a record amount of diesel fuel to other countries this year in an effort to keep domestic prices high.

Analysts said the contradiction highlighted inefficiencies in China's domestic markets.

"To have these two news reports side by side would seem to imply that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing," Robert Ebel, energy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told RFA in a recent interview.

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[ender]

1. betcha we'll see alternative fuels soon.

that juggernaut isnt going to be hamstringed by the oil wars.

no way - they'll find another way. they are a fairly creative engineering-wise people.

[Robb]

2. Wasn't this a Clancy novel?

Actually, I think it was Russia, now that I think about it. :shrug:

[DUreader]

3. Coming Prosecution of Oil Company Execs?

Looks like the official paper has juxtaposed stories in a way

that highlights wrongdoing.

Taking a cue from Putin?

[Alpharetta]

4. they were a little slow trying to get into the Middle East

Anyone wonder why their Silkworm missiles were found on a boat last year headed for Yemen?

[Cocoa]

7. China recently imposed higher fuel efficiency standards

higher than the U.S.

Not to idealize China at all, but the U.S. is the one that is waging the oil war while it is subsidizing SUV's.

[JNelson6563]

5. I foresee further strengthening of the ties

between China and Russia. I wonder what our boy-king will do to piss off that mighty alliance.

Julie

[metisnation]

6. it is obvious

men and women are dying in the desert to fund Bush's colonilization of the ME so Texaco can build a pipeline to feed China's industrial revolution. Trans Caspian Oil pipeline...this war is about money and nothing else.