Output growth to lift energy security

Rising domestic oil production to help offset reliance on expensive shipments

Shengli Oil Field, China's second-largest oilfield complex after PetroChina's Daqing Oil Fields, has produced more than 1.2 billion metric tons of crude till January since 1961, after China's crude oil output rose last August for the first time in nearly three years.

Amid rising international oil prices, Shengli's production, which is equivalent to 0.9 ton of crude for each of the country's 1.3 billion residents, accounts for one fifth of nationwide output in the same period, according to its developer China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, or Sinopec, the world's largest refiner by volume.