Oil in China

The impact of the petroleum industry in China has been increasing globally as China is the fourth-greatest oil producer in the world.

China imported a record 6.7m barrels a day (b/d) of oil in 2015 and forecasted "to overtake the U.S. as the world’s biggest crude importer in 2016" According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) China first became the "world's largest net importer of petroleum and other liquids" by the end of 2013.

Before the development of the industry, Chinese oil production was measured in quarts and output used solely as a lubricant. This first well, developed under the most primitive of conditions and with relatively untrained personnel, began to produce over twenty barrels of oil a day.

In time, with equipment brought in from Szechuan and elsewhere and the development of several distillation plants, nine more wells were drilled in the immediate area of Yu Men wells which then had a capacity of about 1,000 barrels of oil and 10,000 gallons of gasoline a day, except in winter when cold weather caused the oil to congeal. This was the first major oil field in China.

Ensuring adequate energy supply to sustain economic growth has been a core concern of the Chinese government since 1949.

In 1956 a rail link was built to Lanchow; until then, the oil was transported out by truck. A pipeline was constructed in 1957. The Yu Men refinery was enlarged and modernized, and by the late 1960s it was reported that production from that area was "about two million tons".

In 1959, large reserves were discovered in Songhua Jiang-Liao basin in northeast China. The Daqing oil field in Heilongjiang

In 1973, as production increased, China began exporting crude oil to Japan, and began offshore exploration. Exports increased to 20 million tons in 1985, before internal consumption began increasing faster than production. By 1993, internal demand for oil exceeded domestic production, and China became a net oil importer.

Although China is still a major crude oil producer, it became an oil importer in the 1990s. China became dependent on imported oil for the first time in its history in 1993 due to demand rising faster than domestic production. In 2002, annual crude petroleum production was 1,298,000,000 barrels, and annual crude petroleum consumption was 1,670,000,000 barrels.

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Wikipedia