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.