Oil giant to lower annual yields
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-03-24 11:05

China's leading petroleum producer, Daqing Oil Field, will cut its crude oil output by an annual 7 percent for the next seven years, a local official has revealed.

The reduction will bring the yearly crude oil output of the oil field, dubbed "China's oil tank," down to 30 million tons by 2010, said Ge Ruyin, mayor of Daqing in the Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Before 2003, the yearly crude oil output of the petroleum giant, which contributes some one-third of the country's oil, had remained above 50 million tons for 27 years since it was put into production in 1960.

If the reduction continues at such a rate, Ge said, the annual output of the oil field will drop to 10 million tons by 2020.

The reduction program indicates the oil field is facing imminent exhaustion of exploitable oil reserves.

Daqing Oil Field boasted 2.2 billion tons of exploitable oil reserve and currently only 500 million tons remain untouched.

 The management of the oil field and the provincial government of Heilongjiang both hope to lengthen the operational life of the enterprise by reducing its yearly output.

It is hoped that new drilling technology can be developed and new oil and gas reserves can be found during the years of output reduction, Ge said.

The enterprise has been making vigorous efforts in recent years to prospect for new oil resources in the area of the oil field near the border area between Heilongjiang and Russia.

The oil field is also working with a Beijing-based gene lab on research of genetic modification of animalcules which can facilitate oil exploitation, in hopes the GM microbes can help exploit six to 10 percent more of its current oil reserve.

Ge said the enterprise is also pinning its hopes on a strategic shift to the petrochemical industry to sustain its economic life, aiming to change itself into a leading petrochemical enterprise.

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