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Land Oil and Gas Fields Ready for Exploration
China has opened 18 oil and gas fields to foreig investors for exploration and drilling in the near future, confirmed Cao Zhenyan of PetroChina on September 25. This is the first time for the country to open this field to foreign investors,according to the latest issue of Beijing Today.
According to Mr. Cao, most of the fields lie in oil and gas depository rich areas of the Tarim Basin in northwestern Xinjiang, Erdose Basin in northern Inner Mongolia and Song-liao Basin in northeastern Heilongjiang province. The potential depository of oil and gas of these 18 fields amounts to 20 percent of the total of PetroChinaˇ®s current production.Technically, one of the 18 fields opened is for trial drilling, 3 for natural gas exploration, 11 for oil exploration and 3 for production renovation.
More preferential treatment will also be granted to those interested and participating.
According to Mr. Zeng Peiyan, minister of the country ˇ®s State Economic Planning and Development Commission, foreign investors involved in the exploration of oil and gas in the western part of the country can enjoy a 15 percent reduction from all taxation. 13 of the 18 il and gas fields opened this time are located in the western part of the country, and qualify for these preferential treatments.
As the country is developing its poor western areas rich in natural resources, the central government has already opened the construction of the natural gas pipeline from western Xinjiang to eastern Shanghai to worldwide open bidding, as well as natural gas pipeline networks in the provinces along the thousand-mile energy transportation line. In addition, the country opened oil and gas exploration and drilling in the sea to foreign investors several years ago.
As Mr. Cao further explained to our reporter, the reason PetroChina opened these fields is to accelerate the country ˇ®s oil and gas exploration to meet the dramatically increasing consuming demand in the country. The stance PetroChina took this time will be kept at least for the next several yearsand the country will focus on more oil and gas production over the same period of time.
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