Traditional, renewable sources to ensure stable energy supply

China's sustained efforts to increase domestic oil and gas exploration and develop large-scale renewable energy sources will ensure sufficient energy supply amid the nation's green energy transition, analysts said.

Oil and gas explorations play a key role in ensuring domestic energy security, as the country is the world's largest consumer of oil and gas and relies heavily on imports, said Luo Zuoxian, head of intelligence and research at the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute.

"Oil and gas resources will continue to be an indispensable part of the current and future need to build a solid bottom line of energy security in the country," Luo said.

Meanwhile, the country's solar and wind power generation capacity, and development of a green and low-carbon supply chain, also facilitate its ambitious goals of peaking carbon before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060, he added.

The observation is in accordance with last week's Central Economic Work Conference, which set the tone for economic work next year. The conference urged efforts to further ensure energy and resources security, while speeding up the development of a new energy system.

It also called for accelerating the construction of a green and low-carbon supply chain, stressing the importance of economical, intensive, circular and efficient use of resources.

Data from the National Energy Administration reveal that China's annual output of crude oil has increased from 189 million metric tons to 205 million tons in the past five years, and the annual output of natural gas has increased from 160.2 billion cubic meters to 220.1 billion cubic meters.

China's oil and gas self-sufficiency rate last year increased by about 2 percentage points year-on-year, of which the crude oil self-sufficiency rate increased from 27.8 percent to 28.8 percent, while that of natural gas increased from 55.7 percent to nearly 60 percent, it said.

The country's crude oil output climbed 1.8 percent year-on-year during the first 11 months of 2023 to 191.25 million tons, while production of natural gas rose 6 percent to 209.6 billion cubic meters, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Luo said China has achieved a series of breakthroughs in the exploration and development of oil and gas resources.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, for example, struck sizable oil and gas flows last month in its Shendi-1 project in the Tarim Basin of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the deepest oil and gas well in Asia. This is a major milestone in the country's exploration of deep energy resources and one that will further guarantee China's national energy security.

China's offshore oil and gas production this year is also expected to reach new highs, as the nation has been stepping up offshore oil and gas development in recent years, according to CNOOC Energy Economics Institute, a think tank that is part of China National Offshore Oil Corp.

Domestic offshore crude oil production is expected to reach 62.2 million tons this year, with an additional output of about 3.6 million tons, accounting for over 60 percent of the national increase in crude oil production.

Offshore natural gas production is, meanwhile, estimated to reach about 23.8 billion cubic meters, representing about 15 percent of the national increase in natural gas production, it said.

Meanwhile, the rapid development of renewable energy resources in China will also ensure sufficient power supply amid its green transition, Luo said.

Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University, said that the rapid development of renewable power generation technology in China is also reducing costs while giving China a leading role in the global renewable energy supply chain.

Installed capacity of China's renewable power reached a record high in October at 1.4 billion kilowatts, up 21 percent year-on-year, indicating the country's accelerated transition to a greener energy structure, he said.