CNPC NEWS

China National Petroleum Corp. cut its forecast for the nation’s oil demand this year, as a post-Covid economic recovery continues to disappoint.

State-owned China National Petroleum Corporation has won approval from the Chinese government to build three green energy production bases integrated with wind and solar energy facilities in China’s far flung Gobi Desert.

BEIJING: China's oil consumption is expected to keep growing for a decade on robust chemical demand, reaching a peak of about 780 million tonnes per year by 2030, a research institute affiliated with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said on Sunday (Dec 26). Last year, the research group, called the CNPC Economics & Technology Research Institute (ETRI), said that China's oil demand would peak at 730 million tonnes per year by around 2025. In its latest report, the ETRI said diesel fuel, gasoline and kerosene consumption are forecast to peak sometime around 2025 at about 390 million tonnes per year. The strong petrochemical demand will support rising consumption through to 2030.

CNPC-owned China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp (CPECC) has landed the $203.5 million worth sour gas treatment contract in Iraq. The engineering contract is part of the 29-month long project which aims at building 4.39 million cubic meter-sour gas treatment facility for Iraq’s Majnoon oilfield. The field is currently operated by state-run Basra Oil Co, and produces around 240,000 bpd, which will be later boosted to 450,000 bpd.

Chinese state-run CNPC has informed about kickstarting operations at its 371-kilometer-long Ethane pipeline. A statement on CNPC’s website read that the Xinjiang oilfield unit has delivered 500,000 cubic meters of ethane after commencing operations a week ago. The pipeline connects CNPC's gas field in Junggar Basin to Dushanzi petrochemical complex. The gas field in Junggar Basin has an annual ethane capacity at 38.5 million cubic meters.

CNPC’s subsidiary, China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp (CPECC) has secured a $121 million engineering contract in Iraq. The contract requires CPECC to renovate the facilities currently used for gas extraction during crude oil production at West Qurna-1 oilfield. The project is slated for completion in 27 months. The West Qurna-1 oilfield was developed by Exxon Mobil and produces 480,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Chinese oil major, CNPC has entered into a contract to supply diesel to Arrow Energy, its Australian JV. The three years long contract will enable CNPC to increase refined oil product sales in Australia, the Chinese oil major said in a statement. Australia’s coal seam gas producer, Arrow Energy is jointly owned by CNPC and Royal Dutch Shell, and was acquired in 2010.

China’s Caixin yesterday reported about the revival of a decade-old mega project between CNPC and Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA. The financial publication said that the CNPC-PDVSA JV refinery and chemical project will most likely commence operations in 2021. The $9.53 billion-refinery with a processing capacity of 400,000 barrels-per-day will be built in Jieyang, China. The project will incur 60% investment from CNPC, while PDVSA will contribute to the remaining 40%.

Oil Minister of Iran has informed that CNPC of China has officially replaced energy giant Total in the multibillion-dollar South Pars gas project of Iran. In August, when Total did not receive a waiver from US sanctions against Iran, the company informed the Iranian authorities about its plan to withdraw from the project. Total had 50.1% stakes in the project and now CNPC already holds 30% stakes in the field.

China’s CNOOC has received its first LNG cargo from the Russian Arctic gas project on November 11. The cargo was shipped from Yamal and was bought from Novatek, a Russian firm. Novatek also controls Yamal LNG along with Total, CNPC and the Silk Road Fund. Meanwhile, CNPC is also planning to buy at least 3 million tonnes of LNG from Yamal starting from 2019.

China's state-owned CNPC yesterday agreed on collaborating with Norwegian energy major, Equinor for oil and gas exploration, renewables and carbon capture technology. The firms inked an MOU to explore opportunities in tapping unconventional gas resources in China, apart from partnering at global oil and gas projects. Relations between China and Norway had soured over the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarding its Peace Prize to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010.

In order to develop and embrace new technologies to increase oil recovery, Russia’s Gazprom Neft and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have come together as technical partners at the Eastern Economic Forum. The objective of the partnership also includes developing advanced techniques for polymer and surfactant flooding. The first step in the process would be a feasibility study for surfactant flooding which will take place at the Sutorminskoye field.

CNPC’s listed arm, PetroChina updated about the completion of a new pipeline by Yunnan refinery for the transportation of gasoline and diesel. The newly constructed pipeline is 81 km long, with an annual transport capacity of 1.68 million tonnes. The Yunnan refinery is one of the PetroChina’s largest refining projects with 260,000 barrels per day of crude refining capacity that began production in 2017.

Renewed US sanctions forced French supermajor, Total SA to pull out from all its deals, worth USD 5 billion. The massive South Pars offshore natural gas field development contract in 2017 was the one of the first major gas deal signed with Iran post 2015 nuclear deal. Iran has been looking for an alternative to Total, while Chinese state-backed CNPC acquired majority 80% share of the project this month.

CNPC, China’s energy major has taken over 50.1% stakes of the South Pars gas project previously held by France’s Total. This project is Iran’s multi-billion dollar project. Earlier CNPC had only 30% stake in the project. The French oil major signed a deal to develop phase II of the project in 2017. The French oil giant had warned to walk out in the absence of a waiver from US sanctions.

ADNOC and Chinese state-owned CNPC are believed to be closing in on a deal pertaining to a major investment into upstream and downstream businesses. The UAE oil major is putting into execution its plans to almost double its refining capacity and triple petrochemicals output potential by 2025. ADNOC has diverted its focus on the expansion of its downstream division to capture new growth markets.

Al Yasat, a joint venture between ADNOC and Chinese oil giant CNPC, has granted Bu Haseer field development contract to Abu Dhabi’s National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC). The scope of the agreement involves engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning (EPCC) activities for offshore facilities, intended on raising the production capacity of the Bu Haseer field to 16,000 bpd in 2020.

The Chinese regulators are looking forward to announcing before the coming winter the decision to merge the oil and gas pipeline assets of three of its state-held energy giants- CNPC, CNOOC, and Sinopec, estimated to be worth around $78 billion. The three companies combined own 66,000 kms of the 70,000 kms-long gas pipeline network. This would allow third-party access to the pipelines and pollution control by a large margin.