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China Passes U.S. as World's Biggest Energy Consumer (Update4)
2010-07-20 09:40:55.167 GMT
(Updates Zhou's comments in sixth paragraph.)
By Grant Smith and Christian Schmollinger
July 20 (Bloomberg) -- China overtook the U.S. as the
world's biggest energy user last year, emphasizing that
developing nations are driving global growth, according to the
International Energy Agency.
China consumed 2,252 million metric tons of oil equivalent
in 2009 in the form of crude, coal, natural gas, nuclear power
and renewable sources, IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol said
yesterday. That exceeded the 2,170 million tons used by the U.S.
"It's one of those major turning points," Tilak Doshi,
the chief economist at the Energy Studies Institute at the
National University of Singapore, said in a phone interview.
"China is growing by leaps and bounds. You've got OECD
countries where you're talking about oil demand peaking,
meanwhile the emerging countries like China and India will keep
growing their energy demand."
China's gross domestic product expanded 10.3 percent in the
second quarter even as the government took measures to cool
growth. China, with Hong Kong included, was the biggest energy
user in 2009, consuming 2.2 billion tons of oil equivalent, BP
Plc said in its annual Statistical Review of World Energy in
June. The U.S. was second and Russia ranked third, BP said.
"As China overtakes the U.S. as the world's largest energy
consumer, it is not only a domestic issue for China, but has
repercussions for the rest of the world not only in supply terms,
but also in how the energy is consumed," Birol said in an
interview by phone from Paris. "If China uses electric cars,
hybrids and so on, they will impose the manufacturing line on
most of the rest of the world."
China Skeptical
The IEA's data are "not very credible," Zhou Xi'an, head
of the National Energy Administration's general office, said at
a media briefing in Beijing today.
"When the IEA came to China to publish its energy outlook
a couple of days ago, they also over-estimated China's energy
consumption and carbon dioxide emissions," Zhou said. "We
think that's because of a lack of knowledge about China,
especially about China's latest developments of energy
conservation and renewable energy."
At the same time China increases its use of fossil fuels,
it is boosting renewable energy projects. The nation may spend
about 5 trillion yuan ($738 billion) in the next decade
developing cleaner sources of energy to reduce emissions from
burning oil and coal, Jiang Bing, head of the National Energy
Administration's planning and development department, said in
Beijing today.
China's oil imports gained 48 percent last year and have
almost doubled since 2005, according to customs data. The nation
increased net crude imports to a record 22.1 million tons in
June, or about 5.4 million barrels a day, customs figures show.
Declining Output
Global oil supplies will become "tighter" after 2015 as a
result of declining production outside the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries, and growing control of reserves
by state-run producers, Birol said.
The U.S. remains the largest oil consumer, using 843
million tons in 2009, more than double China's 405 million,
according to BP. China burnt 1,537 million tons of coal last
year, compared with 498 million in the U.S., BP said.
The reliance on coal saw China surpass the U.S. in carbon
emissions in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
China released 6.533 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2008,
compared with 5.832 million for the U.S.
"When we look at the countries who are engines of global
energy-demand growth, namely China, China, China, India and
Middle East, then I am a bit more optimistic," Birol said.
The IEA's 2010 World Energy Outlook on supply and demand
through to 2035, to be released in November, will focus on three
particular topics, he said.
These will be the cost of renewable energy sources; costs
faced by the energy industry following the failure to reach an
accord in Copenhagen; and the diversion of oil supplies in the
Caspian Sea region from Europe to Asia.
The IEA is an adviser to 28 developed nations, all of whom
are also members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development.
*T
Total energy consumption in Mtoe US China
2000 2270 1107
2001 2228 1104
2002 2254 1193
2003 2260 1356
2004 2306 1576
2005 2317 1707
2006 2295 1865
2007 2333 1977
2008 2281 2131
2009 (e) 2169 2252
*T
For Related News and Information:
Top oil stories: OTOP <GO>
Top China stories: TOP CHINA <GO>
--With assistance from Wang Ying in Beijing. Editors: Clyde
Russell, Todd White
To contact the reporters on this story:
Grant Smith in London at +44-20-7330-7353 or
gsmith52@bloomberg.net;
Christian Schmollinger in Singapore at +65-6212-1898 or
christian.s@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss on +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net;
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or crussell7@bloomberg.net
