FX.co ★ China to boost domestic gas and oil production

Top world energy consumer China is expected to double the domestic output of oil and gas to nearly 700 million tons by 2030 as available resources are actively developed, the Ministry of Land and Resources said. With energy demand still increasing, Beijing is keen to reduce the risk of growing import dependency by raising domestic production as quickly as it can. Indeed, China as the world's top net oil importer, just can’t afford to allow its suppliers to disrupt fuel supplies. China’s authorities set a target for local corporations to scale up natural gas production as much as possible. The policy implementation will be closely monitored by the government agency. Moreover, the government worked out and approved a special program in favor of developing environmentally friendly and unconventional kinds of fuel. The Ministry of Land and Resources said on its website, China's oil and gas production in 2013 rose 4.6 percent from the previous year to 320 million tons of oil equivalent. Oil production rose by a relatively slow 1.8 percent to 210 million tons in 2013, while gas output rose 9.8 percent to 120.9 billion cubic meters, including 117.7 billion cm of conventional natural gas production, 3 billion cm of coalbed methane, and 200 million cubic meters of shale gas. Meanwhile, China’s National Energy Administration is not going to rest on its laurels. It aims to increase hydrocarbon output by 12% to the overall 131 billion cubic meters by late 2014. Importantly, energy consumption in China has been soaring recently. So, energy production has surged 6.2% to 452.8 billion kilowatt-hour.