The country's top offshore oil producer CNOOC said it will investigate both shallow-water and deep-sea opportunities and has set new production and exploration targets.

 

"China's offshore region boasts untapped resources of up to 7.2 billion tons of oil equivalent, with only one-third of that (2.5 billion tons) discovered. The potential is great," said Zhu Weilin, executive vice-president of CNOOC.

 

"We will go to new shallow and deep offshore areas," he said.

 

New blocks in Bohai Bay and the South China Sea offer great potential for CNOOC, he said.

 

Deep-sea areas to the south of the Liwan 3-1 oilfield could offer opportunities, said Zhu, while the new blocks in Bohai Bay are the company's priority for shallow-water exploration.

 

CNOOC plans to double its output from the Bohai Bay field to more than 27 million metric tons in five to six years as new fields come onstream, its vice-president Chen Bi, who is in charge of the firm's Bohai oilfield, told Bloomberg.

 

Chen projected CNOOC's Bohai oilfield would surpass production at the Shengli oilfield, China's second largest, by that time, according to the Bloomberg report.

 

It's an ambitious production target for CNOOC and demonstrates its confidence in and determination to meet the country's soaring energy demand, said Liu Gu, a senior energy analyst with Guotai Jun'an Securities.

 

An anonymous source from CNOOC told China Daily yesterday that tapping the Bohai reserves is a long-term goal, but the level of output it will contribute will depend on ongoing exploration and production efforts.

 

In August, Hong Kong-listed CNOOC announced a major discovery at the Jinzhou 251 field in Bohai Bay that it said was likely to produce light oil.

 

As energy demand picks up, China's major oil producers are gearing up exploration and production.

 

PetroChina, the nation's top oil company, said yesterday its oil and natural gas output had jumped 4.3 percent in the first nine months to meet rising local demand.

 

The firm's production for the nine months amounted to 828.1 million barrels of oil equivalent, a year-on-year increase of 4.3 percent. Oil output was up 0.9 percent, while gas production jumped 16.8 percent year-on-year.

 

"The operating figures of PetroChina are within expectations, with natural gas production maintaining substantial growth. The decent growth rate is necessary given the country's growing oil imports," said Liu.

 

Sinopec, Asia's top refiner, plans to sell 4 billion yuan of bonds to help fund acquisitions and upgrade its plants as it tries to meet rising demand in the world's fastest growing major economy.

 

China will import 46 percent of the nation's oil this year, said Liu. That figure was 42 percent last year.

 

PetroChina's shares traded in Hong Kong climbed to a record HK$18.76 apiece yesterday.

 

(China Daily October 16, 2007)