China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has discovered a large new field containing about 1 billion tons of shale oil. It is located in the Ordos Basin in northwest China's Gansu province, the Global Times reported on Sunday, citing a statement from the company on its social media account. It is noted that this is the largest shale oil field in the country.
The oil field was discovered by CNPC's subsidiary Changqing Oilfield Co, which has made several major discoveries over the past three years. The discovered reserves of shale oil will help stop the growth of dependence of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on oil imports. Currently, about 70% of China's oil consumption comes from imports.
Large-scale exploration and production of shale oil in Qingcheng County, Gansu Province began in 2019.
The company expanded its exploration activities, discovering 143 million tonnes of oil in 2020 and 550 million tonnes in the first five months of 2021.
CNPC also announced on Saturday that the company has discovered a 1 billion tonne oil and gas field in the Tarim Basin. The company announced that 4 million tons of oil and 1.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas will be produced annually from oil and gas reserves until 2025.
CNPC, headquartered in Beijing, is China's largest national oil and gas corporation and one of the largest energy companies in the world. In 2020, CNPC was ranked fourth in the "Fortune Global 500", in the global ranking of the largest companies in the world, the criterion for which is the company's revenue.
