CNPC adds 400 bcm to proven gas reserves in 2013

Changqing oilfield in the Ordos basin. (PetroChina)

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the country’s dominant gas producer, boosted domestic proven gas reserves by 400 billion cubic metres in 2013, according to a statement by President Zhou Jiping. The company also added more than 600 mt of proven domestic oil reserves in the year.

CNPC invested an estimated RMB 31 billion ($5.12 billion) in 2012 for exploration in key regions, including the Songliao, Ordos, Tarim and Sichuan basins, in an effort to sustain growth of oil and gas reserves, according to data compiled by CNPC’s Economics and Technology Research Institute.

CNPC, the state-run parent of PetroChina, has increased proven gas reserves by more than 400 bcm every year since 2006, according to the institute. As of 2012, the company had developed seven new gas regions with reserves in excess of 100 bcm each, and six new oil regions with reserves topping 100 mt each, institute data indicated.

CNPC’s proven gas reserves accounted for 86% of the country’s total in 2012, according to the institute. The company’s proven oil reserves, meanwhile, took up 71% of the nation’s total in the same year.
Zhou noted that for 11 years the production of oil equivalent has been steady, with annual output of 40 million tons of oil equivalent (mtoe) from the Daqing Oilfield in northeast Heilongjiang province and around 50 mtoe from the Changqing oilfield – up from 45 mtoe in 2012 – in the Ordos Basin. The Changqing field has grown by 5 mtoe each year since 2007, when it produced 20 mtoe.

Changqing, CNPC’s biggest oilfield, had produced 23.58 mt of crude and 33.28 bcm of gas in 2013 as of 22 December, according to a statement released by PetroChina on 27 December. Revenue from the Changqing field is expected to exceed RMB 150 billion in 2013, PetroChina said.

Zhou did not disclose growth figures for PetroChina’s oil and gas reserves for 2013. In its Q3 performance report last year, PetroChina reported the cost of exploration for oil and gas in the first nine months of the year reached RMB 19.31 billion.