Recently Study on the True Cost of Oil in China was issued, the world’s first report studying environmental external costs (EECs) of oil. Oil production, oil processing and oil utilization all negatively impact water, the atmosphere and soil in different degrees, according to the report. Some impacts can be found immediately, while most cannot as they are potential and long-term existed. At present, people still underestimate resource, environmental and public health costs, which do exist during production and utilization of oil.

The environmental external costs are closely related to oil production technology, emission reduction technology, economic development and income level. While consuming large quantities of water, oil extraction pollutes surface water (the two impacts account for 70.2% of EECs in this stage). Looking from oil processing stage, 89.8% of EECs comes from air pollution, resulting in health damage, which takes up 94.1% of EECs in the stage of oil consumption.