China to Step Up Overseas Oil Exploitation

Home>>Business

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 22, 2002

China to Step Up Overseas Oil Exploitation

To ease the country's increasing oil shortage, China is planning to strengthen its exploitation of overseas oil resources while continuing to tap its own oil reserves.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

To ease the country's increasing oil shortage, China has planned to increase exploitation of overseas oil resources while continuing to tap its own oil reserves.

Tian Fengshan, minister of Land and Resources, said at the first national symposium on the selection of strategic oil and natural gas resources Sunday that China should make better use of overseas oil and natural gas resources.

Zhong Weizhi, director of the recently built National Strategic Research Center for Oil and Gas Resources said that the country can solve its oil shortage only if it makes full use of both domestic and overseas oil resources and markets.

China's three oil giants, namely China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (SinoPec), and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) have all poured huge sums of money into prospecting and exploiting oil overseas.

Zhong said that although the three companies all have their own plans for overseas oil exploitation, these plans belong to the enterprises themselves.

The government is in the process of mapping out an overall plan for overseas oil exploitation which would help the three State- owned oil giants to work together, Zhong added.

He Shenghou, a department manager with Sinopec, said that major international oil companies are all scrambling to obtain rights of exploitation and production in areas rich in oil and natural gas reserves.

It's natural for China to increase efforts in this regard, which will help ease shortage in domestic resources, He said.

"To participate in the exploitation of international oil resources could reduce the risk of excessive dependence on oil imports," He Shenghou said, adding that by exploiting overseas oil resources both the United States and Japan now have a stable supply of international oil.

He also called on the government to increase its support of the three oil giants by working out more favorable policies, simplifying working procedures and offering more loans.

Statistics indicate that on average each person in China uses 1.3 barrels of oil and 18 cubic meters of natural gas a year, far below the world per-capita level.

China's oil imports have been rising for years.

In 2001, imports exceeded 65 million tons, nearly 30 percent of the year's total oil consumption.

According to reports, CNPC has successfully participated in exploiting oil resources in Sudan and Venezuela and already has shared crude oil there.

The company has also signed agreements with other countries, such as Russia and Indonesia to jointly exploit oil and gas in their territories.

SinoPec has also eyed overseas countries and regions, such as the Middle East, north Africa, southeast Asia and Russia, to jointly prospect and exploit oil.

The CNOOC started its business of exploiting and pumping out its first barrel of crude oil overseas in as early as 1995.

Questions?Comments? Click here

China Seeks New Breakthrough in Oil, Gas Exploration

Chinese Companies Required to Hold Sending More Workers to Israel ( 5 Messages)

Chinese Scientists Among First to Crack Genetic Code of Rice ( 10 Messages)

Chen Shui-bian Preaches Again "Taiwan Independence" ( 17 Messages)

China's Economy to Grow Above Six Percent ( 20 Messages)

Ins and Outs of a Young American's Roguery on Bus in China ( 115 Messages)

Venezuelan Parliament Refuses to Recognize Interim President ( 15 Messages)