China's crude oil demand to rise sharply: forecast

SHANGHAI - China might elevate its crude oil demand to 540 million tons in 2015, a sharply increase from the 450 million tons recorded in 2011, experts attending the China International Oil and Gas Trade Conference forecast on Thursday.

The country imported 250 million tons of crude oil in 2011, constituting 13.4 percent of global crude oil trade volume that year, according to experts from the China National Petroleum Corporation, China's largest oil and gas producer and supplier.

In 2011, 57 percent of China's oil consumption was imported products, said Gao Shixian, director of the Energy Research Institute affiliated to the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's economic planner.

Gao expects that, driven by a fast-growing economy, China will consume 480 million tons of oil products this year and over 500 million tons in 2013, of which, 60 percent would be imported.