CRI听力: China's Oil Import broke the Alarming Level of 50 Percent

A recent statistic released by the Chinese government shows China's oil imports last year surpassed the alarming level of 50 percent for the first time in history, indicating an energy security alert.

Let's take a closer look with reporter Liu Min.

The National Energy Administration says China's crude oil imports this year are likely to increase by 9.1 percent to 212 million tons, even more than the previous year's 52 percent of the total consumption.

Many experts say it will be more difficult for China to sustain healthy development if the country continues to be overly dependent on oil imports.

With the current annual 7-percent increase in imported oil, China will need to import 65 percent of its oil to meet its demand by 2015. This figure will reach up to 70 percent by 2020.

Xu Xiaojie, an energy advisor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, says the country needs to be fully alert and prepare to fight against this kind of situation.

"It is a double-edged sword. The increase of dependency on imports indicates growth in domestic consumption and the economy. But we also are facing potential risks. For example, we are more dependent on those major suppliers like the Middle East area, and once those places experience some political and economical turbulence, then our transport channels of crude oil from those places to China will be jeopardized."

Statistics from the Development and Reform Commission indicate the length of the country's oil and gas pipelines have increased from 60 thousand kilometers in 2008 from 200 kilometers in 1958. But the construction speed of the pipelines can hardly meet the demand of the spiking oil imports. Currently 50 percent of China's imported oil comes from the Middle East and Malacca Strait.

If these places should encounter any threats to their political or economic stability, then their oil supplies to China would likely be threatened.

Xu Xiaojie says this is why China is making great efforts to develop diversified channels for importing oil.

"China is also exploring new channels and resources. We are coming up with new plans on the major transport channel from the Middle East. For example, a new line could be built from the Middle East to Burma and to China's Yunnan Province. Recently, China just established a line with Turkmenistan to transport natural gases, and the crude oil pipeline between China and Kazakhstan has just been built. And now China is talking with Russia about opening a new line."

China is a country with a sufficient coal supply, but in great need of petroleum products and deficient in natural gases. Many experts say this pattern may not change in the upcoming decades, so for China, a high demand for imported oil is an inevitable trend.

But could petroleum become China's developing bottleneck in the future? Experts such as Xu Xiaojie believe there are multiple ways for the country to guarantee comparatively healthy development and national energy security.

"The first is to make more efforts to guarantee the security of the major channels from Middle East. The second is to speed up diversifying the import channels. We also need to go out of the country and invest in the overseas market directly to get our share of oil exploration. We need to combine the oil trade and direct investment together, and integrate the overseas investment and the domestic market."

Raising energy efficiency and looking for replaceable energy are also alternatives. For example, the production of fuel ethanol is rapidly increasing in places like North America, Latin America and European Union countries. It is estimated that by 2013 refined oil made from fuel ethanol will account for five percent of total oil consumption in the world. In China, places like Chongqing, Hubei and Shandong are also working on fuel ethanol production. Experts also say electric vehicles have a brighter future in replacing oil-consuming vehicles than other energy sources in the future.

For China Drive, I'm Liu Min.