PetroChina In Talks with Shell, Hess about Shale Oil Joint Venture
by Dow Jones Newswires
Wayne Ma
Thursday, April 05, 2012
rigzone.com
BEIJING - PetroChina Co., China's largest energy producer, is in talks with Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Hess Corp., about forming a joint venture to develop shale oil in the Santanghu Basin in northwestern Xinjiang province, PetroChina's parent company, China National Petroleum Corp., said in an in-house newsletter Thursday.
The Turpan-Hami Oilfield Co., a unit of PetroChina, already has received approval to develop shale oil in Santanghu with two companies in a joint venture, CNPC said, quoting a company official.
Although the foreign companies will assume all the investment and exploration risk for shale oil, all the companies in the joint venture will invest in developing the shale oil, CNPC said, without elaborating.
China had an estimated 354 billion barrels of shale oil resources as of 2008, the World Energy Council said. However, China produced only about 7.6 million barrels of shale oil in 2008, it said. |
