China's oil consumption

 24/7 Wall Street:  China’s Oil Demand at All-Time High in December
"Oil industry information firm Platts reported today that Chinese demand for crude oil rose 7.7% in December 2012 to an average of 10.58 million barrels a day, the highest on record. The Platts analyst attributed the sharp rise to refinery expansions and higher seasonal demand for products. Crude oil demand reached 10.5 million barrels a day in November...The rise in demand is linked to the pickup in China’s economy, which grew at a rate of 7.8% in the fourth quarter. And with higher growth forecast for 2013, demand for oil is expected to rise again this year."

WSJ:  China Aims to Import 61% of Crude-Oil Needs by 2015
"BEIJING--China plans to cap its dependence on foreign crude oil to 61% and its electricity consumption to 6.15 trillion kilowatt-hours by 2015, the State Council said Wednesday.  The limits, published in the State Council's 12th five-year plan for energy development, are increases from 2012, when China imported 57% of its crude-oil needs and used 4.9591 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity. China bought 271.02 million metric tons of crude oil from foreign sources in 2012, according to the General Administration of Customs...The State Council said it would raise the share of natural-gas consumption as part of its energy mix to 7.5% and non-fossil fuel consumption to 11.4% by 2015. Crude-oil-refining capacity would be raised to 620 million tons and output of refined oil products to 330 million tons by 2015, the State Council said.""

Call me skeptical.  When China's decision makers are faced with deciding whether to slow industrial production or increase crude oil imports I suspect they will choose to increase imports.  Just a guess.  As an aside - the most under-reported economic story of the last few years has certainly been the Chinese migration from rural areas to cities