China's refined oil consumption increased only by 5.6 percent year-on-year in the first nine months on stable coal supply, sharply lower than the 19.7 percent growth in the same period last year, a government report said Tuesday.

The country's coal production increased by 10.2 percent to 1.3 billion tons during this period, said the report from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

China produced 136 million tons of crude oil in the first three quarters, a year-on-year increase of 4.2 percent. The crude oil import increased 10.6 percent to 94.86 million tons.

Due to the rising global oil prices, China's petrochemical industry has seen profit rise by 40 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency October 26, 2005)