We've seen this coming for quite a while, but now it's official: China is the top energy consumer in the world. The U.S. had held that title for the last, oh, 100 years or so.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency, which apparently keeps track of such things, says China used 2,252 million tons of oil equivalent last year, compared to 2,170 million tons for the U.S. For some idea of just how fast the train is rolling, The Wall Street Journal says China's energy consumption was half the U.S.'s just 10 years ago.

"The crazy thing about China's passing of the U.S.," says Tim Hanson, co-advisor of our Motley Fool Global Gains international investing service, "is that its consumption still remains well below the U.S. on a per capita basis." In other words, "With more than 1.3 billion people rapidly growing wealthier and consuming more energy, expect China's energy consumption to continue to rise for the next decade or more."

Tim recently recommended Banco Latinoamericano de Exportaciones (NYSE: BLX) to Global Gains members, a Latin American trade bank that should benefit as trade increases between resource-rich Latin America and energy-hungry Asia.

The state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC Limited (NYSE: CEO), is another play on China's energy explosion. The company holds a monopoly position in oil and gas exploration in offshore China, and it's able to sign deals with companies that want to drill. It also receives a 51% stake in any discoveries, at no cost to CNOOC. That's a moat that not even a giant like ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) has. (Both Exxon and CNOOC have been mentioned as players in a possible hostile takeover of BP.) Tim recommends buying CNOOC shares when the price dips below $150.

Tim and the team have just returned from their annual research trip to China. If you'd like to see all their dispatches from the journey, simply enter your email address in the box below.