China Overtakes U.S. as World’s Largest Energy Consumer
Oil held over $76 a barrel Monday following three straight declines, and the Wall Street Journal reported that China has overtaken the United States as the world’s largest energy consumer.
China consumed 2.25 billion tons of oil equivalent last year — about 4% more than the 2.17 billion by the U.S., the Journal reported, citing the International Energy Agency.
The oil-equivalent metric represents all forms of energy consumed, including crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas and renewable sources such as hydropower, the paper reported on its Web site.
Crude futures, meanwhile, held just over $76 a barrel in early Monday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, following modest declines in the past three trading days, Bloomberg reported.
Oil finished the trading day last Tuesday at $77.15 a barrel on the Nymex, the high for the month of July.
The Department of Energy will release its weekly survey of diesel and gasoline pump prices Monday afternoon in Washington. Prices of both have declined almost every week since mid-May.
