China's crude oil output up 2.5% in July

BEIJING - China's crude oil output gained 2.5 percent year-on-year in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Wednesday.

The growth accelerated from a rise of 1 percent registered in June, according to the NBS.

The country's crude oil output came in at 16.3 million tons last month, bringing the total in the first seven months to 111.31 million tons.

As one of the world's largest oil buyers, the country imported 41.04 million tons of crude oil last month, surging 13.9 percent from the same period last year.

Its natural gas production totaled 13.9 billion cubic meters, up 6.1 percent year-on-year, the NBS data showed.

In the sector of coal, the output reached 320 million tons, up 12.2 percent year-on-year.

China aims to increase its annual domestic crude oil output to more than 200 million tons by 2020, while domestic natural gas supply capacity should exceed 360 billion cubic meters.