QUANTIFYING ENERGY
The BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2006 and China Energy Statistical Yearbook 2005 Jointly launched in Beijing, China
Beijing, June 30 BP, Energy Bureau of China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Department of Industry and Transport Statistics of National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) jointly launched the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2006 and China Energy Statistical Yearbook 2005 today in Beijing. This is the second time that BP and two important government departments have co-hosted the launch of these two important energy publications.
The BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2006 contains data series on production and consumption of energy worldwide, up to end 2005. The China Energy Statistical Yearbook 2005 covers domestic energy data, up to end 2004, including energy infrastructure development, energy production, national energy balance sheet, energy consumption, regional energy balance sheet and energy statistics of Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR etc.
More than 180 guests, including representatives from government and non-government organizations, partners, customers, academia and media attended the event together with officials from NDRC, NBS, expert from BP group analysis and senior executives from BP China.
Speaking at the launch event, Mr. Xu Dingming, Vice Chairman of the National Energy Office, said: "Jointly launching the BP Statistical Review of World Energy and China Energy Statistical Yearbook for the second year represents not only the sincere cooperation between Chinese government and BP, but also progressive collaboration between China and the world. It helps the world to better understand China and also enables China to better understand the world". Mr. Liu Fujiang, Deputy Director General, Department of Industry and Transport of NBS, commented: "The joint launch last year attracted wide attention. In the background where the general public and international community are becoming increasingly concerned about energy and environment, we hope this year's event will benefit a broader community."
Dr. Gary Dirks, BP Group Vice President and BP China President, said: "Good decisions - good investment decisions and good policies – can not be made without good quality data. BP is very pleased to be able to collaborate with two prestigious Chinese government agencies - Energy Bureau of NDRC and Department of Industry and Transport Statistics of NBS - to provide sound data that is essential for people to better understand the energy markets both in China and around the world."
"Crude oil, natural gas and coal prices all hit record (nominal) levels in 2005. Combined with a modest reduction in global economic growth, this resulted in a slowdown in energy consumption growth," summarized the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2006.
World primary energy consumption increased by 2.7% in 2005, below the previous year's strong growth of 4.4% but still above the 10-year average. Growth slowed from 2004 in every region and for every fuel. The strongest increase was again in the Asia Pacific region, which rose by 5.8%.
China also experienced a reduction in energy consumption growth, from 15.5 per cent in 2004 to 9.5 per cent in 2005, although economic growth in China was essentially unchanged at 9.9 per cent. China is now the world's largest producer and consumer of coal, having resolved the shortage of coal for power generation of the previous year, and also the largest producer of hydroelectricity.
"2005 was a third consecutive year of rising energy prices. Tight capacity, extreme weather, continued conflict in the Middle East, civil strife elsewhere and growing interest in energy among financial investors led to rising prices", said Lord Browne, CEO of BP plc. "Although energy prices have increased, there has been no physical shortage of either oil or gas." According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2006, oil holds a reserves-to-production ratio of 40 years, gas of some 65 years and coal of 162 years. With the advancement of technology, more energy resources will also be discovered in the future.
Oil: In terms of consumption and production growth, 2005 was a weaker year in the oil markets. However this failed to remove excess supply and inventories continued on an upward trend, firmly above historic average levels in aggregate. Prices rose further with Brent crude averaging $54 a barrel for 2005 as a whole – a development considered to be due less to 'fundamentals' than to the perception of risk, exacerbated by limited spare capacity.
Growth in oil consumption fell by 1.8 million barrels a day – to 1 million barrels a day - principally due to slowdowns in the US and China but also as a result of weakness in developing Asia Pacific where price subsidies were reduced in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, and because India substituted imported oil with imported gas and coal.
Oil production growth in 2005 was 889.000 barrels a day, equivalent to one per cent, with OPEC supplying almost all of the growth. This was lower than expected for a number of reasons – many OPEC producers had reached or were close to full capacity, security problems in Iraq, hurricanes in the US, declines in both the UK and Norwegian North Sea, a slowdown in Russian production, a number of accidents and disruptions to production and rising cost inflation which reflected constraints in the contracting and engineering sectors, leading to delays.
Gas: World gas consumption growth also fell back in 2005 although the fall - 2.3 per cent - was less than that of oil. Slower global economic growth was one factor but there was also an impact from the US hurricanes which were more disruptive to US gas markets than oil markets. Internationalisation of gas continued via pipelines and LNG, domestic supply availability increased in some specific markets and industrial gas consumption in particular proved to be price sensitive in liberalised energy markets.
Gas prices have been pulled upward by rising oil prices and there were spikes in the US and the UK in response to changing demand conditions.
Coal: Coal continued to be the fastest growing fuel thanks to China which consumes 36.9 per cent of the world's coal, almost all of which is domestically produced. Chinese coal consumption rose by 10.9 per cent in 2005, down from 14.4 per cent in 2004. Coal growth outside China was modest, up by 1.8 per cent in 2005, just slightly ahead of the 10 year average of 1.5 per cent.
International coal is now relatively cheap with prices having risen less than gas and then falling back faster. The cost of carbon has yet to critically impact fuel choice.
Nuclear and Hydroelectricity: Both nuclear and hydroelectricity contribute 6 per cent to total energy consumption.
Nuclear output edged up a mere 0.6 per cent in 2005, experiencing above average growth in Asia-Pacific where four new reactors were connected to the grid but declining slightly in the US and Europe with Germany and Sweden both permanently shutting down reactors.
The year was relatively good for hydroelectricity with an increase of 4.2 per cent, largely due to continued growth in China which remained the world's largest hydro producer.
Renewables: Energy consumers around the world are increasingly expressing their desire to consume energy that is both local and green. Installed wind power capacity continued its annual increase of 28.6 per cent in 2005 but still only generates an estimated 0.7 per cent of worldwide electricity.
Ethanol, together with bio-diesel, is the leading renewable liquid motor fuel and global ethanol production increased by 10 per cent in 2005, reaching 16 million tonnes of oil equivalent or about 0.4 per cent of world oil consumption.
Notes to editors:
- BP is one of the world's largest oil, gas and petrochemical companies with operations in over 100 countries. Its main activities are exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas; oil refining, marketing and transportation; gas marketing and power generation; and the production and marketing of petrochemicals. The company also manufactures and sells photo voltaic panels for solar power generation and is actively looking at other forms of renewable energy. At the end of 2005, BP's market capitalisation reached US$221 billion, and the number of shareholders exceeded 1.3 million. BP ranked No.2 in the Fortune Global 500 in 2004 and 2005. For more information, please visit www.bp.com.
- BP has been operating in China since the early 1970s and has invested over $3.5 billion in commercial projects. Its activities in China include production and import of natural gas, supply of aviation fuel, import and marketing of LPG, fuels retailing, lubricants blending and sales, petrochemical manufacturing and solar electric facilities. As one of China's largest foreign investors, BP employs over 3,000 staff in China, either directly or through joint ventures. For more information, please visit www.bp.com.cn.
- Published annually by BP, the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2006 is on its 55th edition. The Review, which has made the global consolidated energy data publicly available, has become one of the most authoritative sources of information on world energy, and is widely respected by the energy industry, academics, governments and many others.
- The BP Statistical Review of World Energy is also available through the internet at: www.bp.com/statisticalreview. The website contains all the tables and charts found in the printed edition plus some additional data, an energy charting tool and a conversion calculator.
- The China Energy Statistical Yearbook is an authoritative and informative report on China's energy industry. It was formerly published bi-annually by Department of Industry and Transport Statistics of NBS and became a joint product by Department of Industry and Transport Statistics of NBS and Energy Bureau of NDRC since 2000. In 2004, it started publishing on an annual basis.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Mr. Michael Zhao, BP China, Tel: +86 (0) 10 6437 6962
