CHINA'S oil output and consumption reached new highs in 2007, boosted by robust growth of its economy.
Sources with the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association, the body covering the petroleum and petrochemical sector, said yesterday that the nation produced 186.7 million tons of crude oil in 2007, up 1.6 percent from 2006.
The output was a record high although growth was slow, said Deng Xianrong, a research member of the Development Research Center of the State Council.
China's net imports of crude oil totaled 159.28 million tons last year, up 14.7 percent. Consumption of crude oil, representing the sum of net imports plus output, rose 7.3 percent to 346 million tons in 2007. It means that some 46.05 percent of China's crude oil consumption have to be met by imports.
The sizzling economy, soaring investment growth in the heavy industrial sector and rising number of cars have driven up China's demand for oil.
China's gross domestic product expanded 11.4 percent in 2007, the highest in the past 13 years, with industrial added value rising 18.5 percent from a year ago.
Oil output in China's offshore oil fields as well as onshore in the western regions compensate for an output decrease in old oil fields such as Daqing in the northeastern region.
China refined 326.79 million tons of crude oil in 2007, a growth of 6.4 percent, nearly similar to the year-on-year growth of 6.3 percent in 2006.
The output of refined oil products - gasoline, diesel and kerosene - hit 195 million tons, up 7.2 percent year on year. The growth is 2.5 percentage points higher than a year before.
The diesel shortage that occurred in the country in the second half of 2007 led to a sharp rise in diesel imports. China imported 1.62 million tons of diesel in 2007, a massive 130.1 percent rise year on year, with export volume of diesel dropping 14.9 percent to 660,000 tons.
China exported 4.64 million tons of gasoline in 2007, up 32.4 percent. Surplus refinery capacity of gasoline and gap between domestic and overseas prices were major factors contributing to rising export volume, said Tian Chunrong, an engineer with Sinopec Corp.