Thanks to a string of new significant exploration discoveries, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) is focusing on doubling its oil and gas output from 1999's approximate 20 million tons to 40 million tons in 2005.

As part of steps taken to reach that goal, CNOOC President Wei Liucheng said during a working conference that his company founded five large oil and gas-bearing structures last year.

Of the five, four structures - Penglai 19-3, Caofeidian 11-1, Bozhong 29-4 and Bozhong 25-1 - are located in the Bohai Bay area. The Penglai 19-3 structure boasts China's second-largest single oilfield after Daqing. Both its total proven reserves and controlled and estimated reserves total 300 million tons.

Wei said the Penglai 19-3 oilfield is expected to be exploited in the near future, and its peak annual output will reach 15 million tons.

In the Pearl River mouth basin of the South China Sea, the fifth new oil-bearing structure named Panyu 5-1 is estimated to possess proven reserves of more than 20 millions of oil.

Thanks to its exploration breakthroughs, CNOOC now possesses much potential for increasing its output, Wei said. By the end of 1999, CNOOC owned remaining recoverable reserves of 1.7 billion barrels of oil, ranking it among the top independent petroleum exploration and development companies in the world.

CNOOC will invest 15.8 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion) towards developing three oilfields - the second phase of Suizhong 36-1, Qinhuangdao 32-6 in the Bohai Bay and the Weichang 13-1/2 in the South China Sea.

CNOOC is expected to see an annual average increase of 20 per cent in its oil production between 2000 and 2005, Wei noted.

CNOOC has successfully launched key measures to greatly reduce its exploration and production costs, thus resulting in high jump of its profits.

In 1999, CNOOC's comprehensive barrel-oil cost decreased to US$10.68 per barrel, compared with US$11.00 in 1998 and US$11.79 in 1997.

Consequently, CNOOC scored 2.75 billion yuan (US$331.3 million) in profits last year, compared with 600 million yuan (US$72.29 million) in 1998.

Wei said CNOOC's investment and budget check commission has played an active role in reducing operation costs. Thanks to the commission's stringent supervision, the construction plan for the second phase of Suizhong 36-1 has been further optimized, thus decreasing the budget by around 1 billion yuan (US$120 million).

To further hone its competitive edge, CNOOC is further restructuring its interior structure.

Its core businesses - oil and gas exploration and development - have been merged to shape a new shareholding company, CNOOC Ltd, which has been registered in Hong Kong and will be listed in overseas stock markets.

CNOOC will also build three large projects in the next six years: the US$4 billion Nanhai petrochemical project in Guangdong; the Guangdong liquefied natural gas project and the Hainan gas-fueled chemical fertilizer project.