Extract

China is now the world’s second largest consumer of petroleum and will soon surpass Japan as the second largest importer of crude oil and petroleum products. Oil consumption in 2004 is estimated to have been 320 mmt, which represents a daily consumption of 6.4 million barrels. In 2005, it was estimated that China consumed about the same amount of oil as in the previous year. China’s total consumption of oil and LPG in 2004 and 2005 was supplied from the sources shown in Table 7.1. FORECASTING CHINA’S INDIGENOUS CRUDE OIL OUTPUT The statistics available for the study of the Chinese energy sector are in many respects still quite opaque. There are, for example, at least four official Table 7.1 China’s oil balance in 2004 and in 2005 (mmt) 2004 Domestic crude oil production Imports of crude oil Exports of crude oil Net imports of crude oil* Imports of petroleum products* Exports of petroleum products Net imports of petroleum products* Total oil supply Imports of LPG Domestic LPG supply Total LPG supply 174.72 122.81 5.49 117.32 37.86 11.45 26.41 318.45 6.38 12.39 18.77 2005 180.86 129.08 8.06 121.02 31.46 14.00 17.46 319.34 6.14 12.48 18.62 Note: * No allowance has been made in these data for illegal imports of crude oil, petroleum products or LPG although these are known to be significant, especially in southern China. Source: China Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals, various issues. 107 108 China and the global energy crisis series for crude oil output that appear in...