Largest Oilfield in 4 Decades Discovered in China

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) on Thursday last announced that the oilfied discovery in Bohai Bay was the largest discovery in the country over four decades. The new oilfield lies in the Nanpu block of the CNPC's Jidong Oilfield in Caofeidian in Tangshan City, north China's Hebei Province said the CNPC. It is an extensive breath of area which is partly offshore and covers 1,300-1,500 square kilometers. It is expected to produce light crude. The recently discovered oilfied in Bohai Bay has a reserve of 1 billion tons, that is about 7.35 billion barrols. This find is going to dramatically advance the Chinese economy. According to ChinaDaily, the Ministry of Commerce says China's net oil imports against oil consumption went up 4.1 percentage points year on year to 47 percent in 2006. It is forecasted that China's crude oil imports will accomplish 160 million tons. Mr Jia Chengzao an oil geologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has prediceted that more oilfields will be discoverd in the Bohai Bay reigon, greatly enhancing the corporations oil production in the future. It is also thought that the new find will satisfie China's domestic energy needs.

"China is not only a major energy consumer, but also a giant energy producer," said vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission Mr Chen Deming while addressing the Second Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia yesterday. Mr Chen said it also has the potential to increase its oil production and its exploration for natural gas, while he dismissed assertions that the country had been a large factor in the changing magnitude of global oil price, and that it did need to import some oil and natural gas to add on to its energy supplies.