CNPC Boasts Substantial Increase In Overseas Oil, Gas Production

china National Petroleum Corp (CPNC) booked a 7.3-percent increase in its equity oil and gas production overseas during the first half of the year, Reuters reports, adding that in terms of profits, the increase from overseas production projects was “substantial.”

The daily production rate of these projects, CNPC said, was 1.9 million barrels of oil equivalent and includes first oil from two projects that involve CNPC’s listed business, PetroChina, in Brazil and the UAE.

Last month, CNPC signed a preliminary agreement on a strategic partnership with Brazil’s Petrobras and advanced negotiations with the UAE’s Adnoc for large-scale investments in Abu Dhabi’s oil production and refining industry.

In Brazil, CNPC will invest in the Marlim field as well as several others in the prolific Campos Basin—one of the hot spots for the oil industry in Brazil—as well as the Comperj refinery.

In Abu Dhabi, CNPC last year won an 8-percent interest in Adnoc’s onshore oil concession worth US$1.8 billion. Earlier this year, Adnoc also awarded CNPC stakes in two of Abu Dhabi’s offshore concession areas—a 10-percent interest in the Umm Shaif and Nasr concession and a 10-percent stake in the Lower Zakum concession. The combined investment in the two concessions was US$1.2 billion.

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Now the Chinese company will bid in another tender for six oil and gas blocks in Abu Dhabi. The company may be eyeing other assets in the region as well: a CNPC official last month told Reuters, “We see a trend of some Gulf countries such as Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia moving to diversify away from their oil and gas reliant economy, by divesting some of those assets to free up capital for other sectors.”

At the same time, the company is investing heavily in domestic production as well. Last month, the company said it will invest the equivalent of more than US$22 billion by 2020 in boosting its oil and gas production in the western region of Xinjiang to mitigate the impact of declining production from oil and gas fields in China’s northeast.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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