News wire — China’s crude oil production in 2020 is set to reach 194 million tonnes, equivalent to 3.87 million barrels per day, the director of the country’s National Energy Administration (NEA) was reported as saying by the official Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.
That would represent a second straight year-on-year rise, a 1.6% increase on the 191.01 million tonnes China produced in 2019 and the highest annual output total since 2016, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
The increase comes following a jump in output from the onshore Changqing and Tarim oilfields, as well as in Bohai Bay, NEA director Zhang Jianhua said.
China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, was also its sixth-biggest oil producer in 2019, according to the International Energy Agency.
Natural gas production in China is meanwhile set to exceed 186 billion cubic meters this year, Zhang was cited as saying at an energy work conference, up at least 7.1% from 2019.
Zhang, speaking as cold winter temperatures prompt fuel supply concerns in China, added that the country would expand underground natural gas storage next year, building storage clusters in the north, northeast, northwest and southwest.
The National Development and Reform Commission said on Monday that China currently has around 90 days’ worth of gas consumption in storage.
(Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Susan Fenton)
