China's dependency on foreign oil nears 60% in 2014

BEIJING - China's dependency on imported oil and natural gas grew to about 60 percent and 32.2 percent respectively in 2014, according to a report released by a research team with the country's largest oil and gas producer on Wednesday.

China imported 308 million tons of oil and 59 billion cubic meters of natural gas last year, according to a report released by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Economics & Technology Research Institute.

The report put China's annual energy consumption at 3.85 billion tons of standard coal last year, growing slower at 2.7 percent year on year.

Coal consumption is estimated to stand at 2.46 billion tons of standard coal, down 0.5 percent year on year, marking the first dip since 2000. Electricity consumption is estimated to grow 3.7 percent in 2014, the slowest growth since 2009.

China also saw less consumption of fossil fuels. Coal's share of total energy consumption was reduced to 63.9 percent last year, down 2.1 percentage points year on year, according to the report.

China had built six national strategic oil reserve bases and 25 commercial reserve bases by the end of last year, with a reserve capacity of 141 million barrels and 307 million barrels respectively, the report said.