China Increasing Oil Reserves With New Discoveries

China is not known as a hot bed of new oil discoveries, but it is trying. With offshore drilling in play, China added over 1.3 billion tons of crude to its reserves last year, up 20% from 2010 numbers.

China’s oil discoveries have been increasing steadily over the last 9 years, but no where near enough to offset demand.  China consumes around 9 million barrels of oil daily, making it the No. 2 consumer of oil behind the U.S.  Americans consume over 20 million barrels of oil per day.

Over 85% of China’s new oil discoveries are being made in five major wells: the Ordos Basin in Inner Mongolia; Tarim Basin and Junggar Basin in Xinjiang Uygur and the offshore Bohai Bay Basin in eastern China.