Despite an increase in domestic output, China's dependence on foreign oil is set to increase exponentially.
Another VLCC is launched to help China's import supply chain Image: CNDev |
According to officials, China imported 271 million tons of crude oil in 2012, a year-on-year rise of 6.8%, as the world’s largest energy consumer continues to expand. Industry analyst Cheng Ruifeng expects imports to increase again by 5% to around 285 million tons in 2013, pushing the nation’s crude imports dependence rate up above 60%.
Even as domestic production becomes more efficient and new blocks are opened up for exploration, the supply is still far outstripped by demand. Zhong Ren, an official at Sinopec Group, expects two-thirds of China’s oil will be imported by 2020, while the Paris-based IEA expects dependency to have increased to around 80% somewhere between 2025 and 2030.
The value of oil imports also jumped by 12.1% year on year to $220.67 billion as uncertainty in some oil producing nations caused prices to soar.