Taiwan to try to reduce oil dependence

The nation will continue to follow the strategies set in last year's national energy conference and try to reduce its dependence on imported oil, the Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

A spokesman for the bureau pointed out that Taiwan relies on imported energy for 98 percent of its energy needs and that imported oil accounts for nearly 51 percent of Taiwan's energy consumption.

He said the government will try to meet the target set at the national energy conference in June last year that by 2025, Taiwan's reliance on imported oil should be reduced to between 30 percent and 31 percent of the nation's total energy needs.

Other targets set in last year's meeting include increasing energy generated from coal from 41 percent to 45 percent of Taiwan's total energy supply by 2025, with natural gas accounting for 16 percent to 19 percent, followed by renewable energy at 5 percent to 7 percent and nuclear energy at 4 percent.

Meanwhile, Chen Pao-lang (陳寶郎), president of the state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油), said petroleum accounted for 50.7 percent of Taiwan's total energy needs and that 65 percent of the 2.3 billion barrels of oil imported by the CPC in the January-November period of last year came from the Middle East.

Chen said CPC will try to diversify its oil supply sources by stepping up international cooperation.