November 8, 2007
There was also a report last week of a Chinese consumer killed at a gas station over filling his tank.
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As the price of oil surges toward a symbolic milestone of $100 a barrel – hitting $96.70 yesterday – it is creating new winners and losers across the globe.
In southern China, high oil prices forced Wang Pui, a trucker, to wait in line 90 minutes the other day to fill up, just to be told he could pump only 25 gallons, as China faced spot shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel.
When Vladimir V. Putin was making Russia's bid to be host of the 2014 Winter Olympics last July, he reached into the country's deep pockets, bulging with oil profits, and pledged $12 billion to turn a Black Sea summer resort into a winter-sports paradise. Russia, which was nearly bankrupt a decade ago, won the Games.
India is potentially even more vulnerable than China, some analysts say. Although it consumes a third as much oil as China, it imports 70 percent of its oil. It also has no strategic reserves, and demand is growing faster than in any other economy except China's. |
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– New York Times |
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