page_title: Energy security of the People's Republic of China
section_title: China's demand for oil
hierarchical_section_title: Energy security of the People's Republic of China / Issues that China faces / China's demand for oil
caption_attribution_description: English: Oil production in China (red) has not kept up with rapidly increasing demand (black).
context_page_description: Energy security of the People's Republic of China concerns the need for the People's Republic of China to guarantee itself and its industries long- term access to sufficient energy and raw materials. China has been endeavoring to sign international agreements and secure such supplies; its energy security involves the internal and foreign energy policy of China. Currently, China's energy portfolio consists mainly of domestic coal, oil and gas from domestic and foreign sources, and small quantities of uranium. China has also created a strategic petroleum reserve, to secure emergency supplies of oil for temporary price and supply disruptions. Chinese policy focuses on diversification to reduce oil imports, which rely almost exclusively on producers in the Middle East.
  According to Professor Zha Daojiong, China's dependence on foreign sources of energy is not a threat to China's energy security, since the world energy market is not opposed to China's pursuit of growth and prosperity. The key issue is actually internal: growing internal consumption without energy efficiency threatens both China's growth and world oil markets.
context_section_description: China accounts for 40% of the 2004 oil-consumption increase, and thus is a key part of the cycle which had led to the oil price increase worldwide. China's import dependence remains at 60% as of 2014. In 2005, a campaign to increase energy efficiency was launched without official Ministry of Energy approval; since the campaign was sporadic, this objective seems hard to meet. Zha Daojiong encouraged increased management of oil and energy in China, noting that "It is fair to say that the threat from ineffective energy industry governance is probably as great as that from the international energy market.".  A projection that China would reach South Korean levels of per-capita oil consumption in 30 years, combined with the current average global decline in production, could mean that up to 44 Mbbl/d (7,000,000 m³/d) (barrels per day) in production would have to be found in the next decade to keep up with increased demand and production declines.  That would be the equivalent of roughly five times Saudi Arabia's production.   Superimpose a production plateau of 100 Mbbl/d (16,000,000 m³/d), and significant real-price increases would be necessary to balance supply and demand. Such increases might have severe effects on the growth of emerging market economies such as China's.
caption: Oil production in China (red) has not kept up with rapidly increasing demand (black).
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