Even so, the analysis world claims that compared with many other Asian countries, China may suffer little damage from the long-term closure of the Hormuz Sea. "China has accumulated one of the largest strategic and commercial oil reserves in the world", analysts at the OCBC Bank said. In addition, "the process of rapid conversion to electric cars and renewable energy also creates a structural layer of protection".
By January, China estimated holding about 1.2 billion barrels of crude oil stored on land, Kpler Data Company said. The figure is equivalent to about 3/4 months of consumption, which helps to delay economic impact, Rush Doshi - Director of Chinese Strategy Innovations at the Foreign Relations Council (CFR) said on CNBC on 9/3.
"For the last 20 years, China has taken a fall depending on marine oil transport", Doshi said. Oil pipelines on land and diversification to renewable energy enable the water to now depend only on about 40 to 50% of the oil importing seaway via the Hormuz Sea Eos.
By 2030, China placed the goal of raising the concentration of fossil fuels in total energy consumption to 25%, from a 21.7% last year.
Get out! Raw oil tanks imported in Qing Island, Shandong, China August 2025. Image: AFP)=============================roproproproproproproproproproprop&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&WW&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&z&&&&&&&&&&&WW&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
- Raw oil tanks imported in Qing Island, Shandong, China August 2025. Image: AFP*
The Sea of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf to the Arab Sea and the global shipping routes. About 31% of the world's shipping oil passed through this Channel last year, approximately 13 million barrels of crude oil per day, according to Kpler.
However, this amount of oil that passes through the Channel contributes only 6.6% of China's total energy consumption, Ting Lu - China's chief economy at Nomura said. Entering natural gas via this gland also accounts for about 0.6%.
The result reflected the two-week-long strategic transition, which gave China a special status on the global energy market. According to the Organization of Oil Exports (OPEC), the United States is currently the largest oil consumption water in the world, followed by China and India. However, China is the largest importer of crude oil, when purchased nearly twice as much as the US.
In these three countries, India is most dependent on oil importing, with about 25% of total consumption, according to analysis of CNBCPDF data on US Energy Information Agency's 2023 data (EIA). The rate of China is lower, at 14%. Meanwhile, America's production meets much of the country's oil demand, according to the 2023 data.
Over the past decade, China has rapidly diversified energy sources. Renewing energy - not including nuclear power and hydroscopic power – made up of 1.2% of their total energy consumption in 2023. This rate grew from 0.2% of the last two decades, according to the calculations of CNBC based on data from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
This ratio of India and the U.S. 2023 was much lower, when it was now at 0.2%.
The urge to use electric cars in China, especially trucks, has reduced the country's oil demand to 1 million barrels per day, Rhodium Group said in the July/2025 report. The research predicted that the figure would reduce about 25,000 barrels a day for the next 12 months.
Currently, more than half of the new passenger trucks sold in China are new energy vehicles – more depending on batteries rather than gasoline. "The fuel demand for road traffic has had signs of peaking and renewable capacity rising rapidly, causing China's sensitivity to decline with oil prices by year", analysts at OCBC said.
In the long run, the process of gasification of traffic and increased electricity from renewable energy will continue to help this economy be less affected by the oil prices shocks.
Oil and natural gas are only 4% of China's electricity-based structures, much lower than 40-50% in many other Asian economies, analysts say. Electrical - mainly produced from coal and renewable energy - currently occupying increasing weight in China's total energy consumption, according to Ember Energy Research Organization. In 2024, renewable energy met about 80% of China's new electricity demand, Ember said.
Over the past few years, US sanctions on Iran have also made China one of the few oil-bought countries of Tehran. Iran currently contributes about 20% of China's import oil. However, much of this can be replaced with Russian oil, Ano Kuhanathan - head of business research at Allianz Trade said.
The greater risk is located at about 5 million barrels of oil per day that China imported from other Middle Eastern countries through the Hormuz Channel, Kuhanathan said. The conflict has now lasted more than a week and has not yet ended.
"Still, a current shock could strengthen the direction that China is pursuing, not altering it", Muyi Yang - the high-power analyst of the Asian area at Ember, said.
Last month, EIA predicted China could increase strategic reserves of about 1 million barrels of oil per day in 2026. China's crude oil import used to drop nearly 2% of 2024, according to Wind Information. However, as Middle East tensions began to increase last year, the country's oil imports again increased 4.6% to a record of about 580 million tons.
"In comparison to other countries, China suffered significantly, but was also much more flexible", Go Katayama - senior analyst at Kpler concluded.
Local Thu * (in CNBC, Reuters (2011)
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