BEIJING: PetroChina, Asia’s largest oil and gas producer, is operating overall as normal, with about 10 percent of its crude oil and natural gas supplies delivered via the Strait of Hormuz, its chairman said on Monday.
The Strait accounts for about 20 percent of global oil and gas supplies and a raging Iran war and expanding conflict in the Middle East have effectively choked that route, driving up oil prices and forcing refiners and petrochemical producers, mostly in Asia, to cut output.
Own production in China, imports via pipelines, equity shares in output of projects outside the Middle East, non-Middle Eastern supplies secured under long-term contracts make up roughly 90 percent of PetroChina’s crude processing and natural gas sales, Chairman Dai Houliang told reporters. “Hence PetroChina can afford operating its oil and gas supply chains at stable and relatively high operating rates for a long time,” Dai said at an earnings briefing.
Dai did not elaborate on the operating of China’s second-largest refiner after Sinopec, which has scaled back production because of disruption in Middle Eastern crude supplies.
Dai said that while PetroChina’s investments in the Middle East have been affected by the war, the company had contingency plans to safeguard supplies via trading activities. He did not elaborate further.
PetroChina is a major investor in the Middle East including in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
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