Industry & Economy
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Economy
China short of crude, but self-sufficient in energy
Our Bureau
Chennai
,
Sept. 30
THE world worries about the effect of China's large and rapidly escalating demand for oil. But this, says Mr Zhang Guobao, Vice-Chairman of China's economic planning agency NDRC, misses the larger picture.
China self-supplied 94 per cent of its energy consumption in 2004. It produced 1.96 billion tonnes of coal last year.
Adding oil, natural gas and other energy output, it produced a total of 1.85 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent of primary energy, accounting for 11 per cent of the year's global energy output. Against this, the country's primary energy consumption in 2004 was only 1.97 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent.
Unfortunately, the world focuses more on China's oil imports than on its exports of coal and coke. China shipped more than 90 million tonnes of coal abroad last year. Besides, it was also the top coke exporter, supplying 56 per cent of the world's demand.
It is argued that Chinese demand has contributed to the dramatic surge in oil prices seen in recent times, all because China imported as much as 117 million tonnes of oil in 2004. But this argument does not hold water when one looks at the total picture, Mr Guobao was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
First, though, because of its reliance on oil for meeting about a fourth of its energy needs, China is forced to tap the world market for crude, it almost fully makes up for this `drain' on world energy resources through its exports of coal and coke. Second, China's demand for oil is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the 500, 500 and 200 million tonnes consumed by the US, Europe and Japan, respectively.
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