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China National Petroleum Corporation Sees Rapid Development of Crude Oil

Posted on: Saturday, 20 August 2005, 06:00 CDT

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Beijing, 20 August: China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's largest oil and gas producer, has reported rapid development of its crude oil production in recent years. In view of the soaring domestic oil demand, CNPC adjusted its strategy this year of guaranteeing the stable output of old oil fields in East China while making rapid development of exploitation and production in newly developed oil fields in west China. A stable output of eastern oil fields is an important issue concerning not only the oil supply of China but also millions of people's lives.

Unified exploitation and mining both underground and overground have been pushed forward in the Daqing oil fields of northeastern Heilongjiang Province. While guaranteeing the output of major oil fields by adopting new technology, the Daqing oil field saw its periphery fields reach an annual upper output of 5.3 to 5.5m tons. Through advancing new technology, further development was also seen in old CNPC oil fields, including those in Liaohe of northeastern Liaoning Province, Dagang of Tianjin Municipality, Jilin Province, North China and eastern Hebei Province.

CNPC's newly discovered and exploited oil fields in west China have become a substitute for old ones. Three years ago, the oil fields in Junggar Basin of northwestern Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region broke the annual output record of China's oil fields by exceeding the 10m tons.

In 2003, Changqing Ordos Basin oil fields output exceeded 10m tons in the market again. The Tarim oil fields in the Taklimakan Desert realized an annual oil output of over 5m tons, while the annual oil output of the northwestern Qinghai fields exceeded 4m tons in 2004.

According to CNPC, the corporation produced 65.45m tons of crude oil in the first six months, up 3.9 per cent, and 18.4bn cu.m. of natural gas, up 20.1 per cent. Natural gas and crude oil have been given equal attention by CNPC.

CNPC has reported a newly proven geological reserve of natural gas that will account for 60 per cent of this year's plan, while its domestic natural gas output reached 17.2bn cu.m., up 21.6 per cent year on year.

In the last 10 years, China saw its proven reserve of natural gas grow by over 120bn cu.m. annually and annual output grow by over 10 per cent. The major natural gas fields seeing rapid growth include the four continental ones in Tarim, Qaidam, Ordos and Sichuan basins and those in offshore regions in the South China, the East China and Bohai Seas.

One of CNPC's major contributions to China's natural gas output is its discoveries in the Kela II natural gas fields in Xinjiang, which laid the resources basis of the great pipeline project pumping natural gas from west China to feed energy-thirsty east China. The other one is the Sulige fields in Ordos Basin of Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, which boasts a good resource prospect. In addition, CNPC has also made promising discoveries in the Songliao Basin and the Sichuan Basin, claiming a natural gas reserve of over 100bn cu.m.

CNPC also witnessed the rapid development of its oil refining and chemical sector. In the first half year, CNPC refined 59.3m tons of crude oil, 10.4 per cent more than a year earlier, and its output of gasoline, diesel and kerosene during this period was 10.8 per cent higher over the same period last year. The sale of its chemical products grew by 10.6 per cent over a year ago.

With the 4,000-km pipeline project successfully pumping natural gas from west China to east China last year, the construction of the CNPC's major oil and gas pipelines and major refinery bases has made good headway. In the first six months, CNPC completed new production capacity of 4.9m tons of crude oil and 3.5bn cu.m. of natural gas to ensure stable output growth for the corporation.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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