China's dependency on imported oil exceeded 60 percent for the first time in 2015 and is expected to rise further this year, according to an industry report released Tuesday.
Actual oil consumption rose 4.4 percent last year, up 0.7 percentage points from a year earlier, bringing the proportion of net imports in total oil consumption to 60.6 percent, said a report released by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Economics & Technology Research Institute. In 2016, the oil dependency rate will go up to 62 percent and oil demand will grow 4.3 percent, as car ownership increases, urbanization advances and the state boosts oil reserves, said Qian Xingkun, deputy head of the institute.
China is one of the world's largest oil buyers. But as its economy slows, its appetite for energy is shrinking too. Tuesday's report put China's annual energy consumption at 4.2 billion tonnes of standard coal last year, falling 0.5 percent year on year, the first drop in 30 years. The report forecast global oil prices would stay low due to plenty of supply and lackluster economic growth.
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