CNPC to pump 18m tons of oil and gas out of overseas stakes
CNPC to pump 18m tons of oil and gas out of overseas stakes
Yu-huay Sun and Will Kennedy, Bloomberg/Manila
China National Petroleum Corp., the nation's biggest oil company,
may produce 18 million tons of oil and gas from its stakes in
overseas projects this year, a company official said.
The country's oil production next year "will be more than"
output in 2005, Lian Jianjia, a vice president at China National
Petroleum's overseas-listed unit PetroChina Co. said in Manila on
Thursday. China my produce 180 million tons of oil this year (3.6
million barrels a day), he said.
China, the world's biggest oil consumer after the U.S., and
its state-controlled oil companies are seeking oil and gas
supplies abroad as energy prices reach records. China National in
October completed the acquisition of PetroKazakhstan Inc. for
$4.18 billion, the nation's largest acquisition of overseas
energy assets.
"Overseas oil and gas production will increase gradually as we
expand our business," Lian said during a meeting of the Asean
Council on Petroleum, or Ascope. "China and Asean countries are
in a growing period of oil consumption. How to obtain more
hydrocarbon resources is an urgent task that faces us," he said.
China's oil fields are failing to meet domestic demand, which
more than doubled in the past decade to about 6.75 million
barrels a day, according to an estimate by the International
Energy Agency.
PetroChina on June 10 said it plans to form a venture with its
parent by the end of this year for overseas expansion and
managing existing foreign assets.
On Dec. 1 last year, PetroChina said it may spend as much as
$1 billion in Thailand's oil and gas fields and in the liquefied
natural gas business in the Southeast Asian nation.
"We can use our experience in upstream to help Asean countries
prove geological structures and find more oil so as to increase
supply," Lian said. "Also to rejuvenate old oil fields and slow
down depletion."
The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
are Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the
Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.