China’s oil consumption is expected to see slower year-on-year growth of 3% to 534 million tonnes this year, compared with a 3.3% growth in 2013, said the think tank of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation's top oil and gas producer.<br /> <br /> China's oil demand growth will be around 2-3% in the future, as economic incentives for oil consumption continues to decline, said Sun Xiansheng, head of the CNPC’s Economic and Technology Research Institute.<br /> <br /> Meanwhile, the growth of natural gas consumption fell to a 10-year low of 8.9% last year from 17.4% in 2013, a result of the nation's economic slowdown, the institute said.<br /> <br /> Consumption was far below expectations at 183 billion cubic meters (bcm), said Sun. He estimated that natural gas demand will be about 200 bcm this year with imports of 65 bcm<br /> <br /> In 2014, China imported 59 bcm of natural gas, up 11.5% on year, which means that about 32.2% of gas demand was satisfied by imports.<br /> <br /> <p> Domestic output was 125.6 bcm last year, and output of coalbed methane was only 1 bcm, which was far below the target, Sun said. </p> <p style="text-align:center;"> <img src="/upfiles/news/image/20150202/20150202113644_8221.jpg" alt="" /> </p>