Oil imports to fuel China's booming economy soared by 17.6 percent in the first half of this year, despite its efforts to reduce reliance on foreign energy supplies, the government said Thursday.
Net crude oil imports from January to June totaled 492 million barrels, or 43 percent of China's consumption, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing statistics released by the customs agency.
State companies have signed multibillion-dollar deals to develop oil and gas fields in Africa, Central Asia and Latin America. But Beijing also is trying to reduce reliance on foreign energy supplies, which it sees as a strategic weakness. It is trying to develop new Chinese oil fields and is promoting conservation and alternative energy sources such as nuclear power.
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China's imports in January-June included 94 million barrels from Angola, or 18.2 percent of the total, Xinhua said.
Other foreign suppliers were Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Oman, Equatorial Guinea, Yemen, Congo, Libya and Venezuela, the report said, without giving detailed figures.
China's total oil consumption last year was 2.2 billion barrels, which was a slight decline from 2004, Xinhua said. ASSOCIATED PRESS
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