By an OGJ Online Correspondent
SINGAPORE, Apr. 11 -- A unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group is planning to raise its investments in China to $5 billion by 2005 from $1.7 billion at the end of last year, according to a Shell senior executive.
They will include a 50% stake in a 800,000-tonne/year ethylene cracker in Guangdong province and cogasification projects in southern and eastern China, said Martin Bradshaw, managing director of Shell Exploration China Ltd.
Shell's $1.7 billion of investment in China by the end of last year included $800 million in upstream projects, $300 million in downstream projects, and $600 million in shareholdings in China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), and China National Offshore Oil Corp.
Shell was pursuing opportunities to participate in PetroChina Co. Ltd.'s Xinjiang-Shanghai gas pipeline project, due to start construction this year.
Shell has completed the evaluation of gas resources at the Kuqa block, one of PetroChina's key gas regions, in the Tarim basin in Xinjiang, Bradshaw said. In addition, Shell is working with CNOOC to develop gas resources in the Bohai Sea and the East China Sea. At the Bohai Sea's Bonan block and the East China Sea's Xihu Sag, Shell and CNOOC had found 600 million to 700 million bbl of oil and 60 billion cu m of gas reserves.
Bradshaw said Shell has 40 gasoline stations in China and a joint venture with Sinopec this year plans to set up 500 stations in Jiangsu province.
Meanwhile, BP PLC earned a net $88 million from its Chinese investments in 2000, according to Gary Dirks, president of BP China Ltd.
In 2001, BP planned to invest $450 million in upstream and downstream projects in east and southwest China. These include a purified terephthalic acid plant in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, a LNG terminal in Zhejiang province, and petrochemical projects in Caojing, near Shanghai, and in Chongqing.
BP was also considering participating in PetroChina's gas line from Xinjiang to Shanghai.