China scored new highs both in oil output and consumption in 2007, boosted by the robust momentum of its economic growth. Sources with the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association said recently that China had produced 186.7 million tons of crude oil in 2007, up 1.6 percent from 2006.
The output represented a record high, though the growth was slow, Deng Xianrong, a researcher at the State Council's Development Research Center, said.
The country's net imports of crude oil climbed to 159.28 million tons last year, up 14.7 percent. Consumption of crude oil, or the sum of net imports plus output, rose 7.3 percent to 346 million tons in 2007. That means that some 46.05 percent of the county's crude oil consumption is met by imports.
The sizzling economy, large influxes of investment in heavy industry and the many cars crowding city streets have driven up China's demand for oil. The country's GDP grew by 11.4 percent last year, the fastest rate in the past 13 years, with the industrial added value rising 18.5 percent from a year ago.
The diesel shortage that hit the country in the second half of last year led to a sharp rises in diesel imports. China imported 1.62 million tons of diesel in 2007, up 130.1 percent year-on-year, with the volume of diesel exports dropping 14.9 percent to 660,000 tons.
