The total world proven oil reserves are 1.15 trillion barrels, some ten percent higher than those in 1980, which can sustain the world oil production for 41 years at current rates, said a statistical review from the world petrochemical giant BP that was launched in Beijing Tuesday.

The review, called the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, also said that the current global proven natural gas reserves of 176 trillion cubic meters have more than doubled since 1980 as a result of exploration, new technology and the commercialization of gas reserves through liquefied natural gas and other technologies.

The review, which aims to be one important part of the recording, year by year, of the production and consumption of all the main forms of energy on a global basis, also noted that, despite the high prices in the oil and gas markets for 20 years, the energy shortage has not become a global issue, and as a matter of fact, the exploration success and application of technology innovation has led to current reserves that are 70 percent higher than those in 1980.

Byron Grote, BP group managing director and chief financial officer, told the launching ceremony that 2003 was a turbulent year in the world's energy markets and China has become an increasing force in global energy markets.

The China launch of the review reflects the importance of China's as well as BP's will to work with China to address its energy issue, he said.

According to BP's statistics, China showed a surge of 13.8 percent in total energy demand in 2003 in response to its GDP growth of 9.1 percent and rising energy intensity.

China's consumption of oil, gas, coal and nuclear power all increased by more than 10 percent in 2003 and China alone accounted for 41 percent of the growth of total world oil demand, and its oil imports rose 32 percent to 2.6 million barrels a day, said the review.

The challenge for China is to access global energy supplies at competitive prices and to create and apply appropriate technologies for transforming energy consumption, on which China's long term economic prosperity depends, Grote said.

Michael Smith, group head of Global Energy Analysis, told Xinhua that a big change in the structure of economy would take place when energy starts to bottleneck the growth of economy, which would trigger the move from energy intensive industries toward services, light industries and high-tech industries.

"The increase of energy efficiency as well as the shift from heavy industry help the Western industrialized countries' economies recover from energy shortage, which I think is probably the pattern for China in the future," said the BP research head, warning that energy consumption growing by 40 percent last year does not look sustainable in the long-term to maintain a high economic growth rate.

Source: Xinhua