China geological prospecting shifts focus to oil and gas resources

Tag : Fuel Oil Gas

 Under the present rising demand for oil d gas and continuous hikingof fuel prices, China's geological prospecting has shifted its focus to oil and gas resources.

In 2007, China injected a total of 66.0 billion yuan in geologicalprospecting, of which 50 billion yuan were put into prospecting ofoil and gas resources, accounting for three fourths of the total.

Currently, China has basically established a market-orientedprospecting mechanism, stimulating various oil giants to increasecommercial investment in the work. PetroChina's investment ingeological prospecting exceeded 300 million yuan in 2007, threetimes of that in 2000. It discovered more than 500 million tons ofgeological reserves of oil in the 2004-2007 period, which isestimated at 700 million tons in 2008.

Sinopec found new geological oil reserves amounting to 2.35 billiontons in 1998-2007, and new natural gas reserve of 1.07 trillioncubic meters.

The rising demand of oil has made China's dependence on importedoil reach 49 percent.

Although the newly discovered oil and gas reserves have increased alot, they are of low grade, with low tenor reserves amounting to 65percent of the total, which will bring about more difficulties tothe country in oil and gas exploration and production.