> How China quietly took hold of the global oil market without anyone noticing

Wow! This Iran War is tougher than I thought. Anybody want to join in and help? Anyone???
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LOL!
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general … r-AA28ZZm6

The on-and-off Iran-related military conflict over the last six months has sent global oil markets into chaos, creating major political problems for leaders in the U.S. and elsewhere as gas prices have bounced up and down.

But China, according to multiple media reports this week, has found itself seemingly immune to all of this and has managed to gain the upper hand.

While China was, as of earlier this year, buying twice as much oil as the United States and more than Europe, it dramatically cut its oil purchases around the time the war started. And that’s a big reason, the Atlantic said, why the global price of oil hasn’t soared past the $100/barrel mark.

“China was definitely the most important factor in keeping prices down,” Rory Johnston, an oil-markets analyst, told The Atlantic. “And the thing is that nobody—and I mean nobody—saw it coming.”

“We tend to joke among ourselves that China is the OPEC of oil demand,” Homayoun Falakshahi of Kpler told the Journal, noting that China is making itself indispensable.

China is not only now the world’s largest importer of oil, but has become “a state actor deploying stockpiles, export controls, and strategic opacity to shape global energy markets on its own terms.”