China's dependency for import oil has risen to 47.0 percent of its annual demand in 2006, an increase of 4.1 percentage points from the previous year, sources with the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

Last year, China produced 183.68 million tons of crude oil, up 1.7 percent. Its net oil imports amounted to 162.87 million tons, up 19.6 percent. The total net imports included 138.84 million tons of crude oil, up 16.9 percent, and 24.03 million tons of oil products, up 37.9 percent.

Industry observers forecast that in 2007, China's crude oil output will grow only less than two percent, while demand for both crude and oil products will rise six percent or so.

According to the General Administration of Customs, in January China imported 13.69 million tons of crude oil, up 3.5 percent over the same month of last year, and 2.77 million tons of oil products, up 5.7 percent.

Source: Xinhua