China’s new appetite for oil could result in shortage

An article in Maclean’s magazine recently warned that high oil prices are here to stay. Columnist Donald Coxe wrote in the April 12, 2004 edition that despite the fact that Iraq oil is once more pumping at pre-war levels, a growing demand from China “will almost certainly guarantee a near-permanent global oil shortage within five years.”
The economic boom is putting more and more Chinese behind the wheel and visiting the gas pumps. Coxe points out that whereas in Mao’s day there were reportedly only 60 private passenger vehicles in China, “they manufacture that many in minutes today.” The country was an oil exporter four years ago, but already is one of the world’s leading importers, second only to the United States in consumption.
Coxe also says that the supply of gasoline is also threatened in North America because of a lack of new oil refineries.