Potential in economical use of resources
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-08-28 10:17

With the rapid growth of the national economy, the gap between supply and demand of petroleum and natural gas keeps widening in China. Owning limited exploitable petroleum and gas reserves, the country, still inefficient in energy consumption, has become aware the importance of economical use of resources.

China's demand for oil rose by 11.4 percent in 2003, making it the world's second largest oil importer after the United States.

Industry insiders predict that China's oil demand may surge to 400 million tons in 2020, with an average increase of 12 percent per year.

The general public is concerned about China's reliance on imported foreign oil. Currently, about one-third of the country's oil is imported. By the year 2020, around 60 percent of China's oil consumption may come from imports, some experts say.

"In the near future China's own oil output will probably not rise by a big margin, and we have to control oil import amounts for security reasons," said Feng Fei, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, or the Chinese central government.

"So what we require to do is to make the economic use of petroleum a top priority, and establish an energy-conserving society," he said.

To achieve the same gross domestic product, China consumes about four times of petroleum of Japan, three times of European countries and twice of the United States, figures showed.

The fuel consumption rate of Chinese-made autos is roughly 10 to 15 percent higher than those produced by developed countries, figures showed.

China's auto industry has been booming since the country's accession to the World Trade Organization in late 2001. China turned out 2.07 million and sold 2.04 million sedans in 2003, with the production up 80.7 percent year-on-year.

The annual average fuel consumption per car in China is 2.28 tons, 10 to 20 percent higher than the United States and 100 percent higher than Japan.

Waste is also huge in China's oil exploitation and processing. If the country's oil exploitation rate could be raised by one percentage point, it could mean the discovery of the additional reserve of 200 million tons of oil, experts acknowledged.

Approximately 20 percent of China's rural-use diesel oil is consumed by fixed power equipment. If half of these power installations switch to electricity instead, 2.5 million tons of diesel oil would be saved yearly.

Relevant surveys also indicate that most potential Chinese auto buyers prefer large sedans with considerable discharge volumes, and some local governments even take measures to limit the usage of cars with small discharge volumes. If this conception is changed, a lot more gasoline may be saved, especially with demand and supply of cars rising so rapidly.

Some experts have suggested the government take macro-control and other administrative measures, such as enacting laws, to encourage people nationwide to conserve oil and gas resources.

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