Asia Is Oil's 21st Century Battlefield
The tectonic shift puts pressure on prices, OPEC and global peace.
This article is for subscribers only.
There's a reason why, when it comes to oil, President Lyndon B. Johnson used to worry about the Suez canal closing, while President Barack Obama has agonized more about the Keystone XL pipeline opening.
Oil's world tilts increasingly toward Asia. In 1965, the Asia-Pacific region used about 3.1 million barrels of oil a day, about a seventh of what was used on the other side of the world. Today, India alone uses far more than that, and the Western Hemisphere is on the verge of being overtaken.