The capital expenditure for 2018 is higher than the RMB60-70bn ($9.5-$11.1bn) announced by the Chinese national oil company for 2017.
From China, CNOOC is looking to draw about 64% of the oil while the remaining 36% from its overseas accounts.
The company said that it will allocate 65% of the announced investment on development while 18% and 16% on exploration and production activities, respectively.
CNOOC CFO Xie Weizhi said: “The Company will maintain prudent financial policy and investment decision-making. We will continue to reinforce quality and efficiency enhancements to continuously improve the Company’s core competitiveness.”
The 2018 target of the company is slightly higher than the estimated net production of around 469 million BOE for 2017.
CNOOC has estimated its 2019 production to be around 485 million BOE and its 2020 production to be 500 million BOE.
The Chinese firm expects to see the commissioning of five new projects this year which includes the Stampede oil and gas field in the US Gulf of Mexico. CNOOC has a stake of 25% in the deepwater field, which is operated by Hess.
The other four projects that CNOOC expects to come on stream this year are the Weizhou 6-13 oil field, Penglai 19-3 oil field 1/3/8/9 comprehensive adjustment project, Dongfang 13-2 gas fields and Wenchang 9-2/9-3/10-3 gas fields, all located in Chinese waters.
CNOOC said that it intends to drill 132 exploration wells this year and has also revealed its plans to acquire about 19,000km2 3-Dimensional (3D) seismic data.
CNOOC CEO Yuan Guangyu said: “In 2018, the Company endeavors to strengthen innovation and technology-driven philosophy.
“Meanwhile, we will continue to pursue a sustainable and environmentally friendly development model while increasing oil and gas production and reserves, in order to deliver improved shareholder returns.”
Last year, CNOOC along with Japan’s Inpex had abandoned their plans to develop the Aurora LNG project in Canada following a negative feasibility study.
Image: China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) headquarters building (on right), designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, in Chaoyangmen neighborhood of Beijing. Photo courtesy of Daniel Case/Wikipedia.
