China Gains Sway Over Energy Markets as Oil Power
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2 left · 0 center · 0 right
What happened
During a war involving Iran that disrupted oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, China — the world’s largest crude importer — first cut purchases and drew down stockpiles, then increased imports again. Chinese crude imports averaged 8.1 million barrels per day in the second quarter, down 32 percent from the first quarter, after a 2025 record of 11.6 million barrels per day; Beijing entered the conflict with an estimated 1.5 billion barrels in reserve. Imports then rose for a second consecutive month in August, to roughly 8.9 to 9 million barrels per day, up 6.2 percent from July after a 22 percent increase the prior month. In that same period, Brent crude reached about $109 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate rose above $106, as Saudi loadings were suspended, three Libyan oil fields went offline, attacks shut Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline (a route used to bypass Hormuz), and global oil inventories fell by about 3.1 million barrels per day in August to their lowest level since 2023. Chinese refiners processed about 13.91 million barrels per day in August while imports and domestic production supplied about 13.27 million, an estimated inventory draw of 640,000 barrels per day, and China’s oil-product exports climbed 12.7 percent year-over-year to 6.01 million metric tons.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 2 articles
1 of 2 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 1 of 2
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: ICIS, U.S. Energy Information Administration and David Blackmon
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 1 of 2
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: official customs data, market data
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- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 15, 22:11 UTC by Daily Caller, naming its source. First document in the first report, from Daily Caller (official customs data).
- Not counted 0
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
The story of China gaining oil-market power leaves out that Beijing first absorbed the Hormuz shock by buying less crude and tapping its own reserves. Left-leaning coverage in the New York Times presents the war as revealing the biggest importer's influence over other countries' jet fuel, gasoline and diesel. Right-leaning coverage is more complete on the sequence: China had cut purchases, drawn stockpiles that cushioned prices, and only later returned as a competing buyer. Daily Caller puts second-quarter Chinese crude imports at 8.1 million barrels per day.
Left-leaning coverage calls China a "new oil power." Right-leaning coverage says China "charges back" into the market.
None of the coverage says what share of other countries' jet fuel, gasoline, or diesel actually comes from Chinese refineries.
Bottom line
You can finish the New York Times piece on China's new oil power and never hear that Chinese crude buying had already dropped 32 percent.
The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Chinese crude imports averaged 8.1 million barrels per day during the second quarter
- China entered the conflict with an estimated 1.5 billion barrels in reserve
- Chinese oil-product exports climbed 12.7% year-over-year in August
- The war revealed China's influence over other countries' supplies of jet fuel, gasoline and diesel
- Chinese refiners ran an estimated inventory draw of 640,000 barrels per day in August
The Left View
The New York Times presents China as “a new oil power” and argues that the war with Iran “revealed just how much influence the world’s biggest oil importer has over prices and other countries’ supplies of jet fuel, gasoline and diesel.” The framing treats Beijing’s importer status as structural market power: not only a force on crude prices, but an actor that can shape the refined fuels other countries actually burn.
The Right View
The Daily Caller presents China’s renewed buying as “another source of demand” as Middle East disruptions “squeeze supplies and oil prices surge,” after Beijing’s earlier pullback had “helped cushion global markets.” Energy analyst David Blackmon said prices “will likely remain on an upwards trajectory regardless of what China does until at least one of the three major Middle East supply limiters are resolved,” citing the East-West pipeline shutdown already described plus Houthi threats to the Bab el Mandeb Strait and an IRGC threat to Hormuz, while adding that “a full re-entry by China to aggressively pursue crude imports would raise the pace of price increases.” The outlet stresses U.S. downstream strain — refineries at 97.6 percent of operable capacity and a record national average on-highway diesel price of $6.285 a gallon — and quotes Stuart Turley that “refined products are a critical point” and “any disruption in refineries will be the critical issue.” James Taylor of the Heartland Institute said the stepped-up purchases “shows why American policymakers must ensure there are no roadblocks to American oil production,” because “strong American oil production ensures the American economy, rather than foreign economies, reap the rewards of high global oil prices.”
Our Take (balanced)
The left’s strongest argument is that China’s leverage now runs through refined fuels as well as crude demand: the Times’s claim that Beijing can sway other countries’ jet fuel, gasoline, and diesel is backed by the jump in Chinese product exports while its refiners ran hotter than new supply. The right’s strongest argument is that the import rebound is hitting an already tight physical market — inventories at a multi-year low, unresolved Middle East outages, U.S. plants near full utilization, and record diesel — so Chinese buying, even if selective, can steepen a price path Blackmon said was upward anyway. The central unresolved tension is whether the episode mainly shows a lasting shift of energy-market power toward China as importer and products supplier, or mainly a supply-shock story in which China’s demand swing is an accelerant and the binding constraints are production, transit, and refining beyond Beijing’s control.
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