China's five-year plan sets limits on imports of foreign oil products

Under China’s 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015), dependence on foreign crude oil and refined oil products will increase this year, but the new government blueprint for energy development has set a maximum limit of 61% of total requirements during the end of the five-year economic plan in 2015. The country’s crude production capacity will be unchanged from 2010 at 200 million metric tons (mt)/year (4 million barrels per day (bpd)) by 2015.
The focus will be to significantly increase refinery capacity, and towards this end, three large-scale refinery hubs will be developed along China’s eastern coast. The development of existing 10 million mt/year refinery complexes will be accelerated through upgrades and expansions. In addition, new refinery projects will be developed with foreign partners in various regions across the country. According to the plan, China’s refining capacity will reach 620 million mt/year (12.45 million bpd), of which 330 million mt/ year will consist of oil products.
 
Acceleration of exploration and development of offshore oil and gas resources, focusing on deepwater, will be China’s program in the upstream sector.
 
The five-year plan will also undertake several projects, such as those that will increase natural gas production capacity, including conventional gas, coal bed methane (cbm) and shale gas. The government aims to discover 6.5 billion mt of new geological reserves of conventional oil every year, and conventional natural gas reserves are expected to rise by 3.5 trillion cubic meters yearly. CBM and shale gas geological reserves are being targeted to increase by 10 billion cubic meters per year and 6 billion cubic meters per year, respectively, to 2015. Commercial production of CBM is expected to reach 20 billion cubic meters per year; shale gas, at 6.5 billion cubic meters per year.
 
The government will set a limit on the country’s total annual energy consumption at 4 billion mt of coal by the end of 2015. In the power sector, China also aims to increase gas-fired power generation.
 
The Chinese government will continue introducing pricing reform in the power, oil and gas sectors through regulations, taxation and other policies. (January 23, 2013)