REFILE-China must control spiralling energy consumption - official

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BEIJING, July 11 (Reuters) - Energy consumption controls must occupy a "prominent place" in domestic policymaking in the coming years, with primary consumption already exceeding 3.2 billion tonnes of coal equivalent (TCE) in 2010, China's top energy official said at a weekend meeting.

Liu Tienan, head of China's National Energy Administration, told a forum that China's limited environmental capacity, and issues such as energy security, made it necessary to impose restraints on energy use, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.

Liu said there was still considerable scope for improvement when it came to efficiency, noting that although China accounted for less than 10 percent of global gross domestic product, it made up 20 percent of global energy consumption.

He said Chinese energy consumption had already overtaken the United States, even though the size of China's economy was only 37 percent that of its rival.

"This gap in energy consumption reflects gaps in industry structure, innovation ability, the international division of labour and in the overall quality of the civil economy," Liu was quoted as saying.

Government officials have been discussing an absolute cap on energy consumption in the next five years, with Liu's predecessor Zhang Guobao saying in March that total primary energy use should stay within 4 billion TCE by 2015.

However, other officials have suggested the figure could be anything between 3.8 billion and 4.1 billion TCE.

A final decision is expected to be included in the latest five-year plan for the energy industry, which is expected to be released in the second half of the year.

With economic growth the overriding priority, China has struggled to rein in spiralling energy consumption growth, which has exceeded most predictions in recent years.

A 2006 plan forecast total consumption to stand at 2.5 billion TCE by the end of last year, significantly below the actual figure of 3.2 billion. (Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Chris Lewis)