Crude oil output hit 842m barrels: PetroChina
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-16 11:44

PetroChina Co., the listed unit of China's largest oil and gas producer, said Monday its crude oil output last year rose 1.5 percent in 2005 to 842 million barrels.

That's the highest annual output since the company listed in Hong Kong and New York in April 2000, the company said. Output in 2004 was 829.2 million barrels.

The average selling price of its crude oil in 2005 was US$48.88 a barrel, up 44 percent from US$33.88 a barrel in 2004, as international oil prices soared on concerns about supplies and hurricane damage in the United States.

PetroChina said it sold 1.15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2005, up 27 percent from 905.6 billion in 2004.

The company's average selling price of gas rose 4 percent in 2005 to US$2.08 per thousand cubic feet from US$2.00.

The bulk of the output growth came from the Changqing oilfield in the northwestern Chinese province of Shaanxi and the Tarim oilfield in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, PetroChina said in a statement.

Output at its flagship Daqing oilfield in the northeastern Heilongjiang province was flat last year, it said.

"China's economy is expected to grow steadily and demand for oil, gas and petrochemical products will remain strong," the company said.

It said it expects global crude oil prices to remain high "while market oriented pricing mechanisms for oil and gas are gradually strengthened domestically."

The company said it made several sizable oil and gas discoveries inside China and offshore China in 2005, and "expects to sustain a replacement ratio for crude oil reserves of above 100 percent."

PetroChina said earlier that oil exploration and acquisitions remain at the top of its agenda. China's energy demands are rising and the country now imports as much as 40 percent of the oil it needs.