Study on temporal and spatial evolution of China’s oil supply and consumption

To begin with, energy flow chart is used to analyze the status of China’s oil supply and consumption. Moreover, the temporal and spatial evolution of the oil production and oil products consumption in China is studied based on the gravity model. Finally, the decoupling index combined with the log mean Divisia index method is used to explore the contribution of the factors which influence terminal oil product consumption in China over the period 1991–2010. This paper draws the following results: (1) China’s net oil import dependency soared from 7.5 % in 1993 to 58.63 % in 2010. (2) The center of gravity for crude oil production and oil products consumption is an overall movement toward the southwest. (3) The economic activity effect is the critical factor in the growth of oil products consumption in China. However, industrial energy intensity effect plays the dominant role in decreasing oil products consumption. (4) The value of the decoupling index represented a re-coupling effect in 1996–1997 and 2003–2004. The other time interval showed weak decoupling effect. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014