China's crude oil output dips in June

BEIJING — China's crude oil output fell again in June as refineries continued to cut output due to abundant supply and low oil prices.

Crude oil output by producers with annual core business revenues above 20 million yuan ($2.96 millio) dipped 2.3 percent year-on-year to 16.21 million metric tons in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The decline eased from May's 3.7-percent drop.

In the first six months, crude oil output dropped 5.1 percent year-on-year to 96.45 million tons.

In contrast, the output of raw coal increased 10.6 percent year-on-year to 310 million tons in June, the fourth consecutive month of growth, the NBS said in a statement.

In the first half of the year, raw coal output rose 5 percent year-on-year to 1.71 billion tons.

In June, natural gas output surged 14.6 percent year-on-year to 11.55 billion cubic meters, 4.1 percentage points higher than the growth in May.

In the first six months, the output of natural gas grew 8 percent year-on-year to hit 74.08 billion cubic meters.

Driven by double digit growth of nuclear, wind and solar power generation, power output in June increased 5.2 percent year on year to 520.3 billion kilowatt-hours.

Power output increased 6.3 percent year-on-year to 2.96 trillion kilowatt-hours in the first half of 2017, the NBS said.

The Chinese government has intensified efforts to fight pollution and use more clean energy.

The country has pledged to cut its carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 and raise the share of non-fossil energy use in total consumption to about 20 percent.