Wei Jianguo, vice minister of commerce, told the 2005 China Petroleum Forum that opened in Beijing on Thursday that China's crude oil imports are expected to reach 130 million tons this year.

The vice minister said that in the first three quarters of this year, China produced 136 million tons of crude oil, up 4.2 percent on the same period of last year, and imported over 90 million tons.

The two-day forum aims to focus on oil industry development in China and analyze the country's oil policy against the rocketing global oil prices. It is being attended by domestic and overseas company representatives and industry experts as well as Chinese ministry officials.

China's oil reserves maintain favorable growth thanks to intensified exploration in recent years despite entering a stage of low growth, said Zhang Xin'an, vice director and researcher at the Global Resources Strategy Open Lab of the Ministry of Land and Resources' Information Center.

According to Liang Shuhe, deputy director-general of the Ministry of Commerce's Foreign Trade Division, China's volume of oil imports this year is expected to be only five percent higher than in 2004, with a growth rate 30 percentage points lower than last year.

From January to September, China imported 93.96 million tons of crude oil, year on year growth of four percent, and imported 23.23 million tons of oil products, down 16.4 percent, said Liang.

However, during the same period, crude oil exports rose by 27 percent year on year to 5.46 million tons, while oil product exports rose 38 percent to 11.55 million tons, he said.

China has endured huge losses from soaring international oil prices in the past two years, said Li Hui, vice president of Sinochem Corporation.

In 2004, this slowed the country's GDP growth by nearly 0.9 percentage points and caused increased foreign exchange payments of about US$8.6 billion, he said.

In the first nine months of this year, China paid over US$10 billion more for oil imports due to price increases, causing the consumer price index to go up 0.16 percentage points and the producer's price index for manufactured products 1.45 percentage points, said Li.

Moreover, as major economic bodies such as the US, EU and Japan experience slower economic growth due to soaring oil prices, China can expect a worsening foreign trade situation, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2005)