Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 21 -- China's Ministry of Commerce has announced that the country's dependence on imported oil rose to 47% of annual demand in 2006, an increase of 4.1 percentage points over 2005.
In 2006, China's net oil imports rose 19.6% to 162.87 million tonnes, with its imports of crude oil increasing 16.9% to 138.84 million tonnes and imported oil products up 37.9% to 24.03 million tonnes.
China produced 183.68 million tonnes of crude last year, up 1.7%. Production growth is expected to remain below 2% this year.
The New China News Agency estimates demand for crude and oil products will rise by 6% in 2007.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
