The global economy isn’t out of the woods yet, but China’s looks like it might be. I think the broader recovery will start there. This was an analysis piece for PE’s June issue (the full thing is on the website, as all PE’s articles are).

Chinese oil imports are on the rise again. But are they the first signs of economic recovery in the country – and for global energy markets? Derek Brower reports

IT SEEMS an age ago now, but during the commodity boom that turned to bust last year, one country dominated the market’s sentiment. China was a gift to the oil market’s speculators and producers, and the bugbear of green activists. Petroleum exports to the country soared, China’s oil companies greedily gobbled up overseas assets and its energy sector belched out a new coal-fired plant every week.

Then, as Western economies stared into the abyss of the credit bust, their hopes rested on China to rescue them from depression. Oil exporters, like other commodity producers, had become addicted to Chinese demand. It faltered and the collapse in the oil price since last year is connected, in part, to the scaling-back of Chinese imports.

IT SEEMS an age ago now, but during the commodity boom that turned to bust last year, one country dominated the market’s sentiment. China was a gift to the oil market’s speculators and producers, and the bugbear of green activists. Petroleum exports to the country soared, China’s oil companies greedily gobbled up overseas assets and its energy sector belched out a new coal-fired plant every week.

Then, as Western economies stared into the abyss of the credit bust, their hopes rested on China to rescue them from depression. Oil exporters, like other commodity producers, had become addicted to Chinese demand. It faltered and the collapse in the oil price since last year is connected, in part, to the scaling-back of Chinese imports. (…) The rest is for subscribers, I’m afraid.