China needs to spend more efforts on oil extraction as it is becoming more dependent on imported crude oil and oil products, an official of the petrochemical industry said recently.

Chen Geng, deputy director of the State Administration of Petroleum and Chemical Industries, told China Chemical Industry News that China imported a record total of more than 40 million tons of crude oil and oil products last year, which accounted for 20 percent of the country's consumption.

China had for several decades been more than self-sufficient in crude oil but started importing crude oil in 1993, following increasing domestic demand for oil.

Chen said that China has vast potential resources of crude oil and natural gas, but China's per capita share of crude oil resources is only one-fifth of the world's average and prospecting and exploration has become more and more difficult.

Experts said that China's demand for crude oil will grow at an annual speed of four percent in the 21st century and that China's net crude oil import is expected to reach 42 million tons this year.