Evolving efficiency and robustness of the international oil trade network

Abstract

As a vital strategic resource, oil has an essential influence on the world’s economy, diplomacy and military development. Oil resources are unevenly distributed. Therefore, trade is an important way to realize the allocation of oil resources on a global scale. This paper establishes a trading-based network model for international oil trade to study the evolving efficiency, criticality and robustness of economies and the relationships between oil trade partners. The results show that for unweighted international oil trade networks (iOTNs), the efficiency of oil resource allocation gradually increases with growing complexity of the iOTNs, and the weighted efficiency indicators are more capable of highlighting the impact of major events on the iOTNs. The identified critical economies and trade relationships have more important strategic significance in the real market. Simulated deliberate attacks corresponding to national bankruptcy, trade blockade, and economic sanctions have a more significant impact on the robustness than random attacks, and the international oil trade system is becoming more vulnerable. When economies are promoting high-quality economic development and continuously enhancing positions in the iOTN, more attention needs to be paid to the identified critical economies and trade relationships.