Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Chinese to invest $30 bln tapping energy reserves in South China Sea

Chinese to invest $30 bln tapping energy reserves in South China Sea (NSI News Source Info) BEIJING - November 25, 2008: China's biggest offshore oil producer could invest about $30 billion until 2020 to develop oil and gas deposits in the South China Sea to meet future energy demands, a prominent Chinese newspaper said on Tuesday. The China Daily said the China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) will invest heavily in building deepwater drilling equipment and plans to drill twice the depth of its existing wells off the coast of China. "Huge potential lies untapped for the company in the South China Sea, which is largely unexplored," the newspaper quoted Wang Aochao, a Shanghai-based analyst with UOB-Kay Hian Ltd, as saying. China, the world's second-biggest oil user after the U.S., is pushing forward energy projects including the construction of nuclear power plants, gas pipelines and oil refineries to help stimulate the domestic economy and meet future energy demand. According to foreign experts, the country could become the world's biggest oil and gas consumer by 2013. The South China Sea, covering 3.5 million square kilometers, stretches from Singapore to the Straits of Taiwan. Geological fuel reserves in the deepwater fields of the South China Sea may reach 22 billion barrels of oil equivalent by 2020 and overall annual output may rise to 350 million barrels, according to rough estimates, the China Daily said.

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