China to Slow Energy Project Construction, Shifts to Capacity Cuts-Xinhua

BEIJING, July 11 (Reuters) - China will ban the construction of new coal-based chemical facilities and coal-fired power plants until 2018 and continue to shed overcapacity in coal mining and oil refining, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.

As part of China's 2016-2020 energy plan, expected to be officially unveiled soon, the new measures will cap total national energy consumption at 5 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent by 2020, and put a ceiling on coal consumption at 4.1 billion tonnes, Xinhua reported. Coal equivalent measures the energy given off by different fuels in a standardised way regardless of type, such as coal, oil or natural gas.

The ban on projects should cut coal's share of the overall mix to 58 percent from 64 percent currently, and help achieve the government's target to phase out 500 million tonnes of coal production by 2020.

http://www.downstreamtoday.com/news/article.aspx?a_id=52735