China’s diesel consumption shrank 1.2% year over year between January and July this year. Here, a driver fills diesel into oil containers at the back of his truck at a gas station in Suining, Sichuan province on December 21, 2011 . Reuters Oil bulls have swapped friends in China, parting with the country’s industrial complex in favor of its burgeoning class of car drivers. They are going to discover that these new pals aren’t as dependable. China’s economy may be rebalancing away from investment toward consumption, and its petroleum use is starting to reflect that. Global energy investors can’t afford to ignore these changes, given that China accounts for 40% of the world’s oil-demand growth. On the industrial side, the slowdown has begun. Because industrial inputs such as diesel, fuel oil and petrochemicals constitute 70% of this market, China’s oil demand was mostly flat between January and July compared […]