PetroChina to cut 2001 crude output by 1.4%

Jan. 29, 2001
China's largest crude producer, PetroChina Co. Ltd., will lower its crude production 1.4% to 102.5 million tonnes this year. The lower production is due to the crude output stabilizing at Daqing field, PetroChina 's largest, which produced 53 million tonnes last year.


BEIJING�China's largest crude producer, PetroChina Co. Ltd., will lower its crude production 1.4% to 102.5 million tonnes this year.

The lower production is due to the crude output stabiilizing at Daqing field, PetroChina 's largest, which produced 53 million tonnes last year.

The company will raise natural gas production 34% to 19.2 billion cu m.

PetroChina expects to prove 83.27 million tonnes of recoverable crude reserves and 57 billion cu m of natural gas reserves this year. The company also plants to cut its oil and gas production costs 31�/bbl to $4.37/bbl in 2001.

Meanwhile, the company will raise its crude refining 14% to 82.9 million tonnes this year, using about 80% of its capacity.

PetroChina expects to keep its crude processing costs at or below 99.43 yuan/tonne ($12).

In anticipation of a fall in crude prices, the company's sales revenues are expected to fall 9.7% to 234.2 billion yuan, based on crude prices averaging $22/bbl.

In 2000, PetroChina acquired 4,530 gasoline stations from local companies across China, bringing its network to 11,350, up 66% from 1999. China has about 88,000 gasoline stations.

PetroChina will further expand its oil products market share in southern China through joint ventures with foreign companies, including BP. The company is in a strategic alliance with BP to acquire around 150 gasoline stations from local companies in southern China's Guangdong province this year.

In northern and western China, PetroChina has a 92% share of the oil products wholesale business.