China cut crude production by the most in 15 years as producers shut higher cost fields. The world’s second-largest oil consumer reduced oil output in May by 7.3 percent from a year ago to 16.87 million metric tons, according to data from National Bureau of Statistics released on Monday. That’s the biggest decline since Feb. 2001. Coal production fell by 15.5 percent, the most in data going back to April 2015, when the bureau resumed releasing those figures. Lower domestic output reflects spending cuts by the country’s oil drillers amid low prices, Gordon Kwan, head of Asia oil and gas research at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong said in an e-mail. PetroChina Co., the nation’s biggest producer, said in March it expects oil and gas output to fall the first time in 17 years as it shuts fields that have “no hope” of turning a profit, while Cnooc […]