Oil majors plan China projects
Wednesday, August 13, 2003 Posted: 0513 GMT ( 1:13 PM HKT)
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -- Chinese oil and gas companies Sinopec and CNOOC are expected to sign a deal this month with Royal Dutch/Shell and Unocal for multi-billion dollar exploration and production gas projects in the East China Sea, Chinese sources say.
The projects include a $1 billion investment in developing the Chunxiao fields to supply gas to major population centers on China's east coast.
"We expect to sign the production sharing contract this month," a senior official with China's second largest oil and gas firm, Sinopec Corp, told Reuters from Shanghai on Wednesday
The contract includes three exploration and two development blocks covering 20,000 square kilometers in the huge Xihu Trough, one of China's top gas finds about 400 km (250 miles) east of Shanghai.
Sinopec and CNOOC, China's largest offshore oil and gas producer, would each hold 30 percent of the projects, and Shell and Unocal would each take up 20 percent, the sources said.
The first development project, centered on the 700 sq km Chunxiao fields and costing about $1 billion, aims to produce about 2-2.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year for Zhejiang province and Shanghai city starting in 2005.
A Beijing-based CNOOC official confirmed that parties aimed to sign the contract in August. A Unocal official declined to comment.
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