China's crude oil output to peak at 200 million tonnes in 2015

BEIJING: China's crude oil output will peak at 200 million tonnes annually in a decade, but even that will be far from enough to cover the country's voracious energy needs, state media said.

The prediction for crude oil production in 2015 has been made by the State Information Center, a top government think tank, based on present oil extracting technology, the Xinhua news agency reported.

China's output of crude oil reached 170 million tonnes last year, up from just 120,000 tonnes at the start of the communist era in 1949, according to previous reports.

The problem is that even though domestic output will continue to grow, it will be in no position to meet demand.

Crude oil consumption is forecast by the think tank to hit 350 to 380 million tonnes as early as 2010, up from a little more than 250 million tonnes last year.

China, the world's second-largest oil consumer after the United States, has been a net importer of oil for the last 10 years as domestic supply fails to keep up with soaring demand.