A tectonic shift of intense magnitude, with far reaching consequences to the emerging, new global energy order, is under way at the moment — almost unannounced. The current energy order is changing and changing fast. Consequences — geopolitical and otherwise — are sure to be massive and signs are already in place. New combinations and permutations are being worked out and the world is changing and changing for good.

After more than a century of the US being the largest consumer China has finally knocked the Americans from this top spot. And this is interesting in more than one ways — with consequences all around.

New data from the International Energy Agency shows that the Asian economic superpower overtook its Western rival in total energy usage in 2009. And interestingly, despite what some maintain, China seems far ahead of its supposed Asian competitors in this sector too.

Statistics show China consumed 2.2 billion mt of oil equivalent last year, compared to the 2.17 billion mt consumed by the US. Oil-equivalent encompasses all forms of energy, including crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas and hydroelectric power. Just a decade ago, China’s total energy consumption was roughly half that of the US.

However, it is worthwhile pointing out that the US remains the largest consumer of oil, using on average 19 million barrels of oil a day. China on the other hand is much more reliant on coal, with its oil consumption roughly half that of the US, at slightly more than 9 million barrels a day.

China is by far the world’s largest user of coal too. Despite its own vast resources, Chinese imports of thermal coal are expected to hit 105-115 million mt this year, pushing it ahead of Japan as the world’s largest coal importer. Only three years ago China was a net coal exporter.

And the US still remains the largest per capita consumer of energy too — with an average American using five times more than his Chinese counterpart. Consequences could be grave if and when an average Chinese also starts using the same level of energy the average American is using today, one can’t help underlining. Americans remain the global gas-guzzler and to restore sanity into the global consumption pattern of this finite resource, the average American needs to change habits. Yet, old habits die hard!

We are living in a different world, one cannot deny. New variables are assuming greater weight in the overall global energy equation. Until a point in time, energy consumption was deemed congruous to growth and development. The higher the consumption, the greater was regarded the level of economic and industrial growth. There was a definite direct relationship then, between the two. Now this axiom seems changing — slowly and gradually — yet surely.

Industrialized countries are definitely striving to lower and still lower the energy intensity — the units of energy used per unit of GDP. In the changing milieu, for both political and economic reasons, the industrial world is endeavoring to use as less as energy possible, while maintaining its economic activity. There is a definite movement, and a conscious one, to somehow divorce energy consumption from economic growth and development.

The US, under Secretary Steven  Chu, has definitely taken a lead in this direction. China was earlier forecast to overtake America, in energy consumption at some point over the next decade, yet situation seems to have changed due to the global economic slowdown, with the US using less energy and endeavoring to use still less, while China continuing to grow at a breathtaking pace.

“The fact that China overtook the US as the world’s largest energy consumer symbolizes the start of a new age in the history of energy,” underlines Fatih Birol, the IEA’s chief economist in a press statement. And none could argue this.

“On the one hand, the US has come to a certain saturation of energy use, but there have also been lots of efforts, especially since 2005, to use energy more efficiently,” he said. The US had improved the efficiency with which it uses energy by 2.5 percent annually during that time, while China managed only a 1.7 percent annual improvement.

And this has changed the world. Beijing’s new status is expected to make it even more influential in global energy markets, in determining prices and how it is used. It would and is already evoking geopolitical considerations. China’s foray into Sudan and energy-rich Africa and Central Asia, its aggressiveness in seeking crude from Kazakhstan, its growing carbon emissions, its relationship with Tehran, its deep interest in the development of Gwadar port in Pakistan despite the perceived US belligerence — all are being looked at in this perspective.

The decades old crude bond between Riyadh and Washington is now seeking other supporting pillars and parameters. Saudi Arabia is no longer the largest supplier of crude to the US. And interestingly, China has already overtaken the US for the first time in decades, as the largest buyer of Saudi crude.

And it would be naive to expect that all this would be without strategic, long-term geopolitical consequences. Indeed the energy world is changing and changing fast.