More big revisions to China’s historical coal consumption

Another fascinating detail from the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy. They have made some massive revisions in the last year to China’s historical coal consumption. The biggest revision was for 2007 when coal consumption was revised upwards from 1320 to 1573 Mtoe, a 19% increase. This revision was greater than the total primary energy consumption of Britain, which stood at 188 Mtoe last year.

Here are the revisions for every year since 1990. These are only the revisions that have been made in the last year. As I discussed on Monday, the period before 2003 has seen earlier, and quite significant, revisions.

In total, China’s primary energy consumption from coal has been revised upwards by 1980 Mtoe over the period 1990 to 2013. Total primary energy consumption from coal in China last year was 1962 Mtoe. So, the statistical revision was the equivalent of adding an extra year’s worth of coal consumption at current levels.