Sinopec Boosts Gas Output, Cedes Blocks

Chinese state Sinopec has announced that its natural gas production in 2016 grew by 4.7% to reach 766.14bn ft³ (21.7bn m³).

Its total output was 431.28mn barrels of oil equivalent, down 8.61% on year, it said January 23. Roughly 70% of that was crude oil production (303.5mn boe) which declined by a little over 13% compared with 2015, with gas representing the other 30%.

Sinopec is one of the main state-owned petroleum energy and chemicals companies in China.

Sinopec and two other leading state oil and gas producers CNPC and CNOOC agreed January 21 to relinquish some 30 oil and gas blocks covering 300,000 km2 in the remote northwest Chinese province of Xinjiang, according to Xinhua news agency. They will be auctioned later this year. The first such auction of Xinjiang oil and gas blocks was held in mid-2015.

Meanwhile BP said its annual Energy Outlook to 2035, released January 25, that it expects natural gas's share in Chinese energy consumption to almost double between now and 2035 to 11%, while coal consumption broadly plateaus over the next 20 years. The outlook also forecasts that China’s demand for energy is projected to grow by less than 2% per year between now and 2035, compared with over 6%/yr over the past two decades.

It also expects China to fulfil its earlier pledge to cap its energy intensity; indeed BP sees it declining by 3%/yr between now and 2035, converging on US levels by then.

Shardul Sharma