China's refined oil consumption increased only by 5.6 percent year-on-year in the first nine months on stable coal supply, sharply lower than the 19.7 percent growth in the same period last year, a government report said Tuesday.

China produced 136 million tons of crude oil in the first three quarters, a year-on-year increase of 4.2 percent. The crude oil import increased 10.6 percent to 94.86 million tons.

Due to the rising global oil prices, China's petrochemical industry has seen profit rise by 40 percent.

The country's coal production increased by 10.2 percent to 1.3 billion tons during this period, said the report from the National Development and Reform Commission.

China's coal output this year is to exceed 2 billion tons, Vice President Pu Hongjiu of the China Coal Industry Association was quoted by the Economic Daily as saying at the second meeting of the Sino-Australian Coal Summit.

In 2004, China's coal output was 1.956 billion tons.

In the same year, the sales revenue of China's major coal enterprises reached 420.4 billion yuan (US$51.9 billion), 2.46 times than that in 2000, which stood at 121.4 billion yuan (US$14.96 billion), according to the Economic Daily.

China's soaring energy demand in recent years has made the formerly depreciating coal industry profitable, with profits totaling 41.8 billion yuan (US$5.15 billion) in 2004.

In 2004, 31 enterprises in China witnessed their crude coal output exceeding 10 million tons, with Shenhua Group ranking first, whose coal production exceeded 120 million tons.

In 2004, China's primary energy production amounted to 1.845 billion tons of coal equivalent (TCE) and the total consumption of energy reached 1.97 billion TCE. Some 94 percent of China's energy consumption depends on its own supply, with an external dependency rate standing merely at 6 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency October 26, 2005)