China should pay more attention to energy security in future: Chinese expert

HOUSTON - With growing energy demand, China should pay more attention to its energy security with more diversified energy sources in the future, a Chinese energy strategy expert said here on Wednesday.

At the 5-day meeting of CERAWeek by IHS Markit that kicked off on Monday, International Energy Agency (IEA) released a five-year forecast, predicting China will continue to be a main driving force for the growth of global oil demand. The forecast also mentioned that the oil demand of China and India together accounts for about half of the growth in global oil demand.

Commenting on the forecast, Chinese energy strategy expert Ruquan Lu told Xinhua that he agreed with the assumption. "According to our estimation, China's oil demand will reach 700 million metric tons per year around the year of 2025, of which 500 million tons will have to come from import," said Lu.

He said that the growing energy demand from China promotes the development of global energy industry, but at the same time imposes more uncertainty on China's own energy security.

Lu said in order to meet the need, China will import energy from the Middle East, Africa, Middle Asia and America. With the diversification of energy sources, China has to face the challenge of geopolitical sophistication and uncertainty.

"We need to pay more attention to and be more careful about such sophistication and uncertainty," he said.

CERAWeek is an annual energy meeting featuring prominent speakers from energy, technology and finance sectors. More than 3,000 guests from over 50 countries and regions attended this week's meeting.