Gas Will Make Up 6.3% of China's Total Energy Consumption in 2016

China’s gas usage will account for 6.3 percent of total energy consumption in 2016, country’s National Energy Administration (NEA) said Friday.

Total energy consumption is expected to be around 4.34 billion tons of standard-coal equivalent in 2016, with non-fossil fuel consumption rising to 13 percent, the NEA said, reported Xinhua Finance Agency Tuesday.

On the supply side, the country is expected to produce 3.6 billion tons of standard coal equivalent in 2016, with crude output reaching 200 million tons and gas output standing at 144 billion cubic meters. 

Plan is also to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by at least 3.4 percent year on year in 2016, Xinhua Finance said citing the NEA guideline.

Clean energy would also be a major focus area in 2016. China plans to invest 30 billion yuan ($4.62 billion) in recharging-infrastructure construction this year to promote the use of electric vehicles, the guideline said.

China's energy consumption rose 0.9 percent year on year to 4.3 billion tons of standard coal equivalent in 2015. World’s second biggest economy consumed 191 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2015, up only 3.7 percent on year,  CNPC Economic and Technology Research Institute (ETRI) said earlier this year. With recent cut in domestic gas prices, gas consumption is expected to rise this year.