China is devoting enormous efforts to saving energy to cope with sky-high oil price.

    Statistics from China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association showed that trade deficit from increasing crude and refined oil import amounted to 68.35 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of this year.

    In response, regulations on energy saving were released recentlyby the State Council and reducing oil consumption of transportation and industrial boilers remains the core rules.

    To be specific, they include a cut on consumption tax rate for lowe mission passenger vehicles, plans to add oil-efficient cars to the government purchase list, vigorous promotion of public transportation and higher vehicle fuel standards.

    Based on an authoritative estimate, China's fuel consumptionstandard is 15 percent to 20 percent lower than the average  European figure and if improved to the European level, about 20 million tons of refined oil can be saved for a year, valuing 100 billion yuan.

    To save oil in transportation, China still needs to adjust refined oil price to a suitable level and push forward fuel tax timely, said Han Wenke, Director of the Energy Research Institute under National Development and Reform Commission.

    Zhou Dadi, a researcher from the institute said optimizing transportation system can also contribute to energy saving for bulk cargo transportation of goods such as coal is highly energy consuming.

    In respect of boilers, technical innovation to improve burning efficiency is extremely imperative.