China becomes world's biggest oil importer: EIA

China overtook the US as the world’s largest net oil importer in September, BBC reported, citing data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Oil consumption in China had outstripped production by 6.3 million barrels a day, said the EIA. In the US, the figure was 6.1 million. Flooding at domestic oil fields curbed production and pushed up imports, according to the EIA. The US uses 18.6 million barrels of oil per day compared with China’s 10.9 million, despite having a population a third the size of China’s.