BEIJING: PetroChina Co Ltd. Asia's largest oil and gas producer plans to produce half its oil and gas from outside China and double it’s trading volumes by 2015, but isn't looking to make major foreign acquisitions, its chairman said on Wednesday.
China's top state-owned energy firms have been aggressively expanding on the international stage as they look to not only secure energy supplies to feed the country's rapid growth, but to reduce their reliance on a market where profits are crimped by state-set controls on fuel prices.
PetroChina aims to produce 400 million tonnes of oil equivalent by 2015, with half coming from existing overseas projects, Chairman Jiang Jiemin told a news conference on Wednesday.
The company was able to achieve its 200 million tonnes overseas production target without making more acquisitions, Jiang said.
"People in the oil industry all know that when the price is high it's not a good time to buy new projects," he said.
The company also aims to be trading 400 million tonnes of oil equivalent with a value of $200 billion annually, double the size and turnover in 2010, with a network of trading hubs in Singapore, London and New York.
"Trading is the only way and a necessary way to resolve the imbalance among different regions," Jiang told reporters.
As part of its expansion in the Americas, it said it would build storage and transportation facilities in the Caribbean.
PetroChina has been flexing its muscles across the world, expanding its international trading network and buying refineries over the past few years, a departure from the days when its state-owned parent, China National Petroleum Corp, led the overseas expansion.
Outside of China, PetroChina will focus on Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America and the Asia-Pacific region for cooperation in both upstream and downstream businesses in the next five years, Jiang said.
One oil stake known to be up for grabs is Exxon Mobil Corp's stake in an Angolan offshore oil block, but PetroChina was not in the running, Jiang said.
"No research has been made on the Angola project," he said.
He saw no impact on the company from political unrest in North Africa and the Middle East.
PetroChina expects oil prices to remain high, at about $95 per barrel in the second half of 2011. U.S. light crude
The company said it intended to further expand its domestic gas business, which was expected to benefit from a Russian pipeline deal in coming months.
Jiang said China and Russia had reached a consensus on most technical and commercial terms, but a few key questions remained.
The talks have focused on a western pipeline route that crosses the narrow stretch of the China-Russia border between Mongolia and Kazakhstan, but Jiang said PetroChina is hopeful of a breakthrough on an eastern pipeline, which would serve a more mature part of the Chinese market.
The company will step up efforts to develop unconventional gas and aims to be a leader in coal-bad methane (CBM) in China, both in terms of technology and output, he said.
PetroChina has CBM blocks in the Qinshui basin, Shanxi province, and a tight gas business in Erdos. It plans to speed up work on tight gas development in the Turpan-Hami basin in Xinjiang in western China, Jiang said.
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