China's natural gas output rose 6.9 percent year-on-year to 23.9 billion cubic meters in the third quarter of the year, the country's top economic planner said on Monday.

Natural gas output in the first nine months totaled 74.4 billion cubic meters, up 7 percent from last year, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on its website.

Of the country's three oil giants, PetroChina and Sinopec reported stable growth in output over the July-September period, while China National Offshore Oil Corp. saw a slowdown in output growth as a result of the oil spill in June, said the NDRC.

Boosted by the operation of the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline and Jiangsu Rudong LNG projects run by PetroChina, natural gas imports rose to 8.3 billion cubic meters during the period, representing 27 percent of the country's total domestic consumption, the NDRC said.

The country imported a total of 22.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas over the past nine months, an 89 percent surge from a year earlier, the NDRC said.

The apparent consumption of natural gas over the July-September period jumped 20.8 percent year-on-year to 30.6 billion cubic meters, driven by an increased demand for power in the summer, the NDRC noted.

The apparent consumption of natural gas stood at 93.7 billion cubic meters in the first nine months, up 20 percent from last year, the NDRC added.

Meanwhile, natural gas reserves increased. The gas storage group of Dagang, a company owned by PetroChina, had stocked 1.96 billion cubic meters as of September, an increase of 200 million cubic meters over the same period last year, the NDRC said.

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