Import Data News
- Oil imports expected to rise 10.2%
Date: 10-Jan-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
THE country's crude oil imports in 2006 is forecast to have risen 10.2 percent from the year before to 140 million metric tons, or 2.81 million barrels a day, Xinhua reported yesterday, citing an official from the Ministry of Commerce.
Imported crude oil is estimated to have met 48 percent of China's total crude oil demand in 2006, Xinhua quoted the ministry's Foreign Trade Department Deputy Director Liang Shuhe as saying.
Comparatively, imports accounted for just 43 percent of China's total crude oil consumption in 2005.
China's crude oil imports are likely to increase at a steady pace in the short term, due to rapid economic growth and limited domestic production, Liang was quoted as saying.
China's 2006 crude oil demand is estimated at 290 million tons, Liang said, while exports likely totaled 7.4 million tons, down 8.3 percent from 2005.
China's January-to-November 2006 crude oil imports rose 15.6 percent year on year to 133.6 million metric tons, while exports fell 19.7 percent to 5.43 million tons, customs data show.
Despite the country's increasing reliance on crude oil imports, the government continues to encourage imports because domestic production of energy resources lag demand.
To encourage imports and limit exports of energy resources, the Ministry of Finance in late December said import duties on coal and oil products will remain unchanged at low levels, while export taxes on coal, crude oil and other energy products will remain at high levels.
In another development, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the country's largest oil producer by output, recorded steady domestic crude oil output in 2006 while overseas production rose, said the company's top executive.
CNPC produced 106.6 million metric tons of crude oil domestically, up a mere 700,000 tons from 2005, said general manager Jiang Jiemin, according to a report by CNPC-backed China Petroleum Daily yesterday.
Production from 65 overseas projects in which CNPC has stakes rose to 54 million tons.
Based on the company's equity involvement in the projects, which span 25 countries, CNPC's share of output from the projects totaled 28 million tons last year, Jiang said.
He didn't specify a year-on-year growth rate.
Overseas natural gas production in 2006 rose to 5.7 billion cubic meters, of which CNPC took 3.5 billion cubic meters, he said, but didn't state the previous year's figures.
The company's domestic natural gas output rose 20 percent last year. Total natural gas sales soared 26.6 percent, Jiang said.
As China's largest oil and gas producer, CNPC accounted for 58 percent of the country's domestic crude output and 77 percent of its natural gas sales in 2006, he said.
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