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China targets distant
Tarim to boost oil output
BEIJING, Oct 18 (Reuters) - China's top oil firms have
set their sights on the Tarim basin in the far-flung
northwest to boost onshore oil output, as the world's
No.2 oil consumer battles dwindling domestic reserves,
industry officials said on Monday.
Beijing-controlled state oil giants PetroChina and
Sinopec Corp said they have raised their spending on
Tarim, in the northwest Xinjiang Uighur region.
"Tarim gets the highest expenditure. We and Sinopec
are both boosting output there," a PetroChina official
from Tarim told Reuters on the sidelines of the first
youth forum of the World Petroleum Conference, a
massive gathering of young petroleum engineers.
PetroChina alone is plouging 5 billion to 7 billion
yuan ($604 million to 845 million) a year in Tarim, a
level of spending that was expected to carried into
the next couple of years at least, said the official.
Chinese industry officials at the conference said that
although drilling a well was much more costly in Tarim
than other Chinese regions due to its problematical
geology, the basin held better prospects than the
eastern mature fields.
Oil and gas wells in Tarim average 3,000 to 5,500
metres in depth
Strong economic growth in the world's seventh-largest
economy is pushing China's dependence on foreign crude
to about 43 percent from last year's 38 percent, as
domestic output at top producers like the aging Daqing
is falling sharply.
PetroChina, the country's largest oil and gas producer,
said last week its crude output was up only 0.8
percent in the first 9 months versus the same year-ago
period.
Its total oil and gas output was up 3.1 percent to
686.3 million barrels of oil equivalent in the period
thanks to faster growth in gas production.
A Xinjiang-based Sinopec official said the Tahe field,
Sinopec's only producing area in Tarim, was expected
to overtake central China's Zhongyuan to become its
second-largest oilfield this year, after Shengli in
east China's Shandong province.
He estimated Tahe's output to rise to 3.5 million
tonnes this year and 7 million tonnes by 2010, versus
last year's 3 million tonnes.
PetroChina forecast its output in Tarim at 5.5 million
tonnes this year and 7 million tonnes by 2010.
The two firms aim to produce a total of 14 million
tonnes of crude, or 105 million barrels, by 2010,
compared with this year's level estimated at 9 million
tonnes.
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