Originally Posted by
West Coast
The US imports it’s oil from a variety of nations for a variety of reasons, largely to avoid being held hostage to one country or consortium. Imagine the leverage the leverage Russia would have over China. I’m sure the lessons of oil embargoes haven’t been lost on China.
I don’t know if one nation alone could fill the void of an embargo against China.
I don't think China is in the business of being subject to leverage. Estimates on wiki (for whatever that's worth...) are that Russia holds a little more than 3 times as much oil as China. Interestingly, Russia is said to have 21 years of production at 2018 rates, and China has 17 years. I suspect that this doesn't include the Arctic areas Russia are posturing over and I am surprised that China does not have a bigger stated reserve given their land mass. Perhaps that will change with time and technology. Obviously if we stop buying from China, their raw material usage goes down somewhat (I can see military related production increasing though)
By-the-by, I think as far as US oil imports are concerned, its actually largely to avoid using up their own natural resources any faster than they have to, and consequently running their potential enemies out faster. Quite right too, strategically speaking.