Mumbai:
China has reported its biggest oil find in four decades in Bohai Bay, having reserves
of one billion tonnes or about 7.35 billion barrels, boosting the country''s prospects
of becoming one of the world''s top oil producers. The
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) struck high-quality crude at the Nanpu
block of the Jidong oilfield in Caofeidian in Tangshan City, in north China''s
Hebei Province. The
Nanpu block, partly offshore, covers an area of 1,300-1,500 sq km and is expected
to produce light crude. CNPC
had discovered five onshore oil fields in the Jidong area with a total reserve
of 735 million barrels and an annual output of 7.35 million barrels by 2004. The
company previously estimated the reserve of the new oilfield at 2.2 billion barrels
and the daily output at 200,800 barrels in the three years. The
new oil discoveries in the area around the Bohai Sea of the Jidong Nanbao oilfield,
will lead to a rapid growth of CNPC''s oil production in the future, analysts said. If
the reserves are all recoverable, the Bohai Bay find will boost PetroChina''s efforts
to ramp up domestic production to help fuel the world''s fourth-largest economy,
they pointed out. "The
discovery is significant in keeping up steady growth of oil production and sustainable
development, and in enhancing security of oil supply for the country," CNPC
said in a statement. China
is one of the world''s major oil producers, with a total output of 183.68 million
tonnes last year, up 1.7 per cent over the previous
year. China also imported 138.84 million tonnes of oil (up 16.9 per cent). Its
oil consumption (crude plus oil products) amounted to 346.55 million tonnes (up
9.3 per cent).
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