China has 50 years of coal reserves

In a recent article, we informed you that Europe is scouring the globe for coal, looking for every available supply of the commodity. Now let’s see where the world’s biggest coal consumer, China, stands on coal.

China is not going to run out of coal

China has reserves of the commodity for the next 50 years. Most of its consumption is met by domestic production, despite the Asian giant’s increasing reliance on coal.

As we are seeing high energy price rises and looming shortages everywhere in the world. China wants to avoid this and is increasing the number of coal-fired power stations.

In the first quarter of this year alone, China approved a new coal-fired power generation capacity equivalent to almost half of all coal-fired generation capacity approved in 2021.

Chinese coal miners at a coal in Huaibei

Coal production is also increasing

Following greater coal-fired power plant approvals, China has also moved to increase coal production based on government orders for more coal supply.

Following a significant rise in global coal prices, the Chinese government has directly ordered an increase in domestic coal production to help the country avoid energy shortages.

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Energy security is now a major concern for China. Earlier this year, China said it would continue to maximize coal use in the coming years as it worries about its energy security, despite promises to contribute to global efforts to reduce emissions. China is therefore clearly putting energy security before environmentalism.

China also has large reserves of oil

At the current rate of domestic production, China also has oil reserves that could last for at least another 18 years.

While China’s coal consumption is mainly covered by domestic production, this is not the case for oil. China, which is the world’s largest oil importer, imports far more oil than its domestic production. In recent months, there has been a large increase in imports, primarily from Russia, to compensate for the reduction in volumes supplied to Europe.