Oil giants team up in China venture
Chinese Petroleum Corp takes a partner to explore areas opened to foreigners
Taiwan's government-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) has teamed with a United States oil giant to submit a joint bid to explore for oil in mainland waters.
CPC is interested in exploring the 12 deep-water areas that China National Offshore Oil - the country's dominant offshore producer and parent of red chip CNOOC - has opened to foreign investment since September last year.
These are so-called 'virgin blocks' that China National has never explored, totalling 76,000 square kilometres.
A CPC spokesman said: 'We are interested to submit a bid and we have teamed up with a US firm to explore this opportunity.'
He declined to identify the partner.
A China National spokesman said there was no deadline for the submission of bids, as each block had different characteristics and involved different technical challenges. 'Timing of the outcome of any bid will depend on negotiations on the individual blocks.'
He would not say whether CPC had already put in a bid.
If CPC comes to an agreement on co-operation in deep-water exploration, it would be the second time between CPC and China National.
In May last year, CPC signed a US$25 million joint-venture deal to explore for oil in the Tainan Basin and Chaoshan Trough in the South China Sea.
The deal was given the all-clear by China and Taiwan, which set the scene for further cross-strait co-operation by government-owned enterprises as the two sides seek to establish direct economic links.
The agreement was the first large-scale cross-strait business co-operation between government-controlled enterprises.
As the mainland imports about 30 per cent of its crude oil needs, and nearly all of Taiwan's oil is imported, the new oil exploration pact could help lessen reliance on imports on both sides.
Early this month, China National opened 12 more exploration blocks totalling 30,388 sqkm to foreign participation - in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and Yellow Sea.
China National has already done some exploration work in these blocks.
CPC's spokesman said the company was interested in these projects as well, adding: 'We are not only interested to expand our upstream exploration exposure on mainland territories but also in other countries.'
He said the company had joint-venture exploration projects in Central and South America, Kazakhstan, the Middle East, Africa, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, Vietnam, Australia and Papua New Guinea. Those in Indonesia and Ecuador were the bigger producing projects, its Web site said.
CPC started tapping into foreign oil and gas assets in 1970.
China National has opened its offshore exploration projects to foreign participation for about two decades.
It started investing in foreign oil and gas fields last year, and has clinched deals in Indonesia and Australia.
