China Knowledge reported that China National Petroleum Corp predicted that China crude oil output will increase by 1% to 2% in 2010.

According to the report, the forecast is slightly higher than the 0.5% growth rate targeted by China economic planning ministry, the National Development and Reform Commission, but lower than the 2% growth predicted by CNPC in an earlier research report.

Mr Yu Baocai vice president of CNPC said a conservative estimate of the Nymex benchmark crude oil price for 2010 would be USD 60 to USD 80 per barrel.

Last year, China crude oil production decreased 0.4% to 189.49 million tonnes or 3.8 million barrels per day while crude oil imports surged 13.92% to 203.78 million tonnes an amount equivalent to 4.09 barrels per day.

Source: China Knowledge