Car sales in 2004, for example, were about 5 million, making China the third largest car market after the US and Japan. By 2004, with the economy still growing at 9.5 per cent annually and as the world’s third largest automobile market, adding more than five million vehicles each year, Chinese oil demand had risen to six million barrels per day, with 40 per cent coming from imports. Some 40 per cent growth in oil demand worldwide over the past four years has come from China, illustrating the magnitude of China’s demand on the world’s oil markets, Thus, for Chinese leaders, these developments place a rising premium on their ability to access oil and gas resources beyond China’s borders. China is the world’s second largest energy consumer after the US.