Beijing, July 4 (PTI): China's primary energy consumption rose sharply by 8.4 per cent in 2006, six per cent more than the growth rate of global consumption as the economy boomed, a report released by BP said here.

The world consumption rose 2.4 per cent last year, slowing from a rise of 3.2 per cent in 2005, according to the 'BP Statistical Review of World Energy'.

China consumed 1.7 billion tonnes of oil equivalent in 2006, accounting for 15.6 per cent of the world's primary energy consumption, the report showed.

More energy was consumed by developing countries in 2006 while the OECD countries slowed down in energy consumption growth, an economist with the BP group, Christof Ruhl said.

The rise of global carbon emission is higher than the growth of global energy consumption in 2006, due to the sharp rise in coal consumption in the world, he was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

China consumed 350 million tonnes of crude oil, up 6.7 per cent from 2005, while its oil output rose by 1.6 per cent to 183.7 million tons in 2006. China's dependency on oil imports stood at 47 per cent in 2006.

According to statistics of BP, the spot Brent price for crude oil averaged USD 65.14 per barrel in 2006, nearly 20 per cent higher than the 2005 average with price peak at above USD 78 per barrel in last August.

The global oil consumption grew by 0.7 per cent in 2006, the weakest growth since 2001 and only a half of the 10-year average, owing to the soaring oil price.

World total oil output reached 3.9 billion tonnes, up 0.4 per cent from a year ago, according to the report.