BEIJING: China’s government said Thursday that net oil imports would rise 17% by 2020 from 2015 levels, as falling production at home increases its reliance on foreign crude. The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, also said in a five-year blueprint for the country’s oil-and-gas industry that it forecasts crude demand to rise 8% by 2020 versus 2015 to 11.8 million barrels a day, or 590 million metric tons.
It said China’s net oil imports would average 7.8 million barrels a day by 2020, or 390 million tons, compared with 333 million tons in 2015. The projected rapid rise of imports in the coming five years comes as the country’s domestic production stagnates. The government said this week that it expects domestic production to fall 7% by 2020 compared with 2015.
