China oil demand seen up 5 pct y/y in 2012 -CNPC

BEIJING Feb 9 (Reuters) - China's apparent oil demand is expected to rise 5 percent from a year earlier to 493 million tonnes this year, or 9.9 million barrels per day, forecasts issued by the country's top oil firm CNPC showed on Thursday.

China, the world's second largest oil consumer, will add 38.2 million tonnes per year new crude refining capacity in 2012, and total refining capacity will reach 578 million tonnes or 11.56 million bpd.

Net imports of crude oil will amount to 266 million tonnes this year, CNPC's research institute said in an annual report.

Crude oil throughput will gain 5.4 percent to 470 million tonnes.

Gas consumption will grow 16.3 percent from a year earlier to more than 150 billion cubic metres in 2012, the report said. (Reporting by Judy Hua and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)