State-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) aims to have 50 million tonnes per year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving capacity by 2020, a company executive was quoted as saying over the weekend.
The target would be nearly eight times the total capacity of the first phase of two LNG terminals that CNOOC has brought on line since 2006, as China was eager to expand the use of clean energy to reduce its dependence on coal.
Gas accounts for only around 3 percent China's energy supply.
CNOOC recently won approval to build its fourth LNG receiving terminal along China's coast, which would be able to take up 3 million tonnes of the fuel a year when it is ready in 2012. [ID:nPEK112588]
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For China's LNG import terminals and plans: [ID:nPEK68536]
"CNOOC, along with Sinopec (0386.HK) and PetroChina (0857.HK), will raise crude oil production in Bohai Sea to 52 million tonnes by 2020 from less than 20 million tonnes in 2007," Zhou Shouwei, a deputy general manager of CNOOC, was quoted by state news agency Xinhua as saying at a forum.
"CNOOC would account for four-fifths of that output."
The expected output in Bohai of the three oil majors would match peak production in Daqing, China's largest oilfield, which has seen output dwindle for some years.
CNOOC will also add tens of billions of yuan of investments in the deepwaters of the South China Sea to increase natural gas production capacity to 40-50 billion cubic metres per annum by 2020, Zhou said.
CNOOC has committed to invest about 20 billion yuan in Zhuhai city in southern Guangdong province to build a range of facilities including a gas terminal and deepwater engineering equipment.
CNOOC, China's largest offshore oil producer, runs its oil and gas production businesses via listed CNOOC Ltd (0883.HK) (CEO.N).