Shenhai-1, a semi-submersible oil production and storage facility, is located in the waters off South China's Hainan Province. [Photo/Xinhua]
Chinese oil and gas enterprises have enhanced exploration and storage of natural gas to ensure the energy supply, confronting fluctuations of the global energy market, as well as the upcoming winter heating season, news portal the Paper reported on Wednesday.
Ensuring energy security is always the primary task of energy work in China, said Ren Jingdong, deputy director of the National Energy Administration, on the sidelines of the ongoing 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
State-owned offshore oil and gas producer China National Offshore Oil Corp, or CNOOC, has intensified marine and land exploration, and is expected to supply about 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the country this winter and next spring, the report said.
The company's Shenhai-1, an ultra deepwater large gas field, has supplied more than 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas since its commissioning a year ago. About 8 billion cubic meters of offshore natural gas will serve the country through intelligent gas distribution system this winter and next spring, said the report citing the company.
According to Wang Zhenjia, deputy general manager of Petro China Changqing branch, as the newly built production capacity of Changqing oilfield exceeded 11 billion cubic meters, the annual natural gas production of the field claimed a new record of 50 billion cubic meters in 2022. As the largest natural gas production base in China, the annual capacity of Changqing oilfield is about one quarter of the country, the report said.
China's output of natural gas has increased by more than 10 billion cubic meters for five consecutive years. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the country produced 143.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas through to August this year, up 5.5 percent on a yearly basis.
The country will produce about 220 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2022, aiming to increase the annual output by more than 10 billion cubic meters, according to the 2022 China Natural Gas Development Report compiled by the National Energy Administration, the Development Research Center of the State Council and the Ministry of Natural Resources, the report said.
