The Chinese Petroleum Corp has worked out a new strategy for overseas oil exploration, a spokesman for the state-owned company said yesterday. Encouraged by the success of its exploration operations in the Corocoro area in Venezuela, the spokesman said Chinese Petroleum will continue cooperation with large multinational oil companies in oil exploration abroad.
"We plan to invest more than NT$7 billion in the next four to five years for overseas oil exploration," the spokesman said, adding that the Chinese Petroleum intends to raise its oil exploration department's profits by 10% to 30%.
The Chinese Petroleum also plans to buy into natural gas fields, particularly those with petroleum reserves. The company's overseas oil exploration projects are expected to turn an estimated annual profit of NT$4.5 billion by 2006.
The state-run oil refiner will focus on Brazil, Indonesia, Peru, the US, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Venezuela, the Middle East and Africa for its future oil exploration projects.
"The Corocoro field in Venezuela is large and is scheduled to begin commercial production by 2005, the company has also acquired a 7.5% stake in another field in Venezuela where oil exploration began last month.
After clearing up its money-losing oil exploration projects, the Chinese Petroleum is now involved with six oil fields in joint-venture projects in four countries, Indonesia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Australia.
The Indonesian field now produces about 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day, plus about 30 million cubic meters of natural gas. The aggregate daily output at the two Ecuador fields now reaches 60,000 barrels.
