China's Oil & Gas Production Reaches Record High in 2025

Written by Paul Wiseman for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

Summary

China's oil and gas production totaled 216 million tons for 2025, equivalent to 4.6 million barrels per day, putting China in fifth place globally.

Oil Rising

China's National Energy Administration (NEA) recently announced that the nation produced record amounts of oil and natural gas in 2025. According to information in The China Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Report as quoted in chinadailyasia.com and elsewhere, production totaled 216 million tons for the year, the equivalent of 4.6 million barrels per day (bpd). This surpassed a record reached in 2015 before production began to drop.

This puts China fifth in the world in oil production, behind the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Russia and Canada.

The NEA was also quoted as announcing natural gas year-over-year growth of about 10 billion cubic meters, or about 353.15 billion cubic feet, the ninth consecutive year of that level of increase.

Oil and gas investments in China are indeed significant, as Industrial Info Resources is tracking 1,202 oil and gas production projects with completion dates in 2026-2027, and a total investment value of US$29.89 billion.

A Big Turnaround

Experts including those at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy see this growth as a result of the 7-year plan China enacted in 2019. In a March 26, 2025 blog post, a senior research scholar at the center, Erica Downs, said the action plan began at a 2019 meeting between China's national oil companies and the NEA. The national oil companies were concerned that China's oil output had dropped from its 2015 high of 4.3 million bpd to just 3.8 million bpd in 2018. Its oil imports had increased from accounting for 60% of its oil demand to 70% during that period.

Production began to return as the plan went into action, returning to about 4.3 million bpd 2025, then exceeding that in 2025.

Imports Also Rose in 2025

The production increases did not lead to a reduction in imports­--instead, they also rose in 2025. Reuters, also quoting Chinese government data, reported in January 2026 that the nation had imported 557.73 million tons of crude in 2025, averaging 11.55 million bpd, 4.4% more than in 2024.

­Some of that increase may have been due to prices being lower year over year due to changes in sanctions. That was also before global prices shot up in February 2026 due to the Iran war.

Another driving force on production and imports involves energy security. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that China's strategic oil inventory leads the world and is more than three times that of the U.S. inventory.

"We estimate that China added an average of 1.1 million barrels per day of crude oil to strategic oil inventories in 2025, which reached nearly 1.4 billion barrels as of December 2025," the EIA said in an April 30, 2026 report. The agency estimated China had 1.397 billion barrels in December 2025, compared with 413 million barrels in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

Due to recent Iran-war-related oil releases, the U.S. SPR level has dropped to 409 million. Prior to the Iran conflict, China had continued to build inventories this year, according to the EIA.

The EIA stressed that oil storage numbers for China were informed estimates.

Estimates include both commercial and government-held inventories. In the U.S., including commercial inventories basically doubled the total in 2025 to 825 million barrels.

Still Leading the World in Imports

According to data compiled by the African Petroleum Producers Organization, China significantly led the world in total oil imports in 2025, as follows:

• China: 10.9 million barrels per day (down 1.8% from 2024 as adoption of electric vehicles and economic shifts slowed demand).
• European Union (EU-27): 8.2 million barrels per day (down 2.4%, continuing a structural decline and shift from Russian supply).
• U.S.: 6.0 million barrels per day (stable, importing heavy crude for Gulf Coast refiners despite being the world's top producer).

By the Numbers

• 4.6 million: Barrels of oil per day produced by China in 2025, a record
• 4.3 million: The previous record, reached in 2015 and not again until 2024

Key Takeaways

• After the start of the 7-year plan in 2019, China reversed its oil production slide, hitting a new record in 2025.
• China still leads the world in imports, and its strategic oil reserve is many times that of its nearest competitor, as it seeks energy security.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, Industrial Info Resources is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 Trillion (USD).