In 1999, China had the capacity for the primary processing of 270 million tons of petroleum, processed 176 million tons of crude oil and produced a total of 105 million tons of gasoline, kerosene and diesel oil, thus basically meeting the demands of the domestic market. In the same year, China had the ability to produce 4.42 million tons of ethylene, and the output of ethylene came to 4.35 million tons. At present, China ranks third in the world in its capacity for primary petroleum processing, fifth in the production capacity of both ethylene and synthetic resin, fourth in the production capacity of synthetic rubber and first in the production capacity of synthetic fiber.
With respect to petroleum and natural gas prospecting, from 1996 to 2000 an additional 3.7 billion tons of petroleum geological reserves and an additional 1,104.6 billion cu m of natural gas geological reserves were verified. In the same period, China produced 798 million tons of crude oil and 116.5 billion cu m of natural gas. The increases in the output of petroleum and natural gas have greatly increased the proportions of the consumption of oil and natural gas in the total energy consumption. The proportions of the consumption amount of petroleum and natural gas in the nation’s total one-time energy consumption rose from 17.5 percent and 1.8 percent in 1995 to 23.6 percent and 2.5 percent in 2000, respectively. In 2001, China produced 165 million tons of crude oil and 30.34 billion cn m of natural gas, increasing 1.2 percent and 11.5 percent respectively over the previous year.
