(Yicai Global) Feb. 18 -- China’s imports of crude oil dropped last year for the first time since 2001 as global prices soared and local oil majors hiked output, reducing the country's dependence on imports, the deputy president of the China Petroleum and Chemicals Industry Federation said yesterday.

China imported 513 million tons of crude oil in 2021, a drop of 5.3 percent from the previous year, Fu Xiangsheng said. The country’s import dependence rate slid 1.6 percentage point to 72 percent.

This cannot be interpreted as the country’s crude oil consumption and imports having peaked, Fu said. It is a normal reflection of international supply and demand fluctuations in the domestic market.

The main reason for the fall in imports were high oil prices, the federation said. The UK’s Brent crude oil prices surged an average of 69.4 percent last year from the previous year to USD70.72.

Also, PetroChina, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp. all hiked output. The country’s oil and gas production climbed 5.1 percent last year from the year before. Crude oil output came to 199 million tons, a gain of 2.4 percent from 2020 and the third straight year of increases. Natural gas output jumped 8.2 percent to 205.3 billion cubic meters.

China was also able to cut crude oil imports by releasing part of the national reserves. In this way it was able to save its foreign exchange and curb profit-making by venture capitals. The nation’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals have also helped curb demand for crude oil.

Editor: Kim Taylor