| Home | News| Living in China| MMS | SMS | About us | Contact us|
   
 Language Tips > Business news
Updated: 2005-06-21 11:26
 
Country looking west for energy supply 

近日,中共中央政治局委员、国务院副总理曾培炎在新疆维吾尔自治区考察,并出席了塔里木油气勘探开发形势座谈会。曾培炎指出,加快新疆能源建设时机已经成熟,条件基本具备,要把油气资源勘探开发摆到重要的战略位置,努力把新疆建成我国油气资源的战略基地,促进经济繁荣、社会进步和民族团结。

 

A wind power plant in Dabancheng, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyguir Autonomous Region, is viewed in this file photo taken on May 31, 2005. (newsphoto)

A State Council leader has called for a wider exploration of the potentially oil-rich Xinjiang to make the region the country's strategic oil and gas base.

During a recent visit to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan said efforts will be focused on the Tarim, Junggar, and Turpan-Hami basins.

Zeng also said oil companies and local governments should look into price reforms in the energy sector, the levying of a fuel tax and an increase in the resources tax.

The basins, equivalent in size to France and Britain, sit on 30 per cent of China's total oil and 34 per cent of its natural gas reserves. But more than 80 per cent of the areas remains untapped .

"Exploration in Xinjiang is still in an embryonic stage," said Zeng at an oil and gas exploration meeting in Tarim on Sunday.

"We should strive to find large oil and gas fields, and make Xinjiang the country's strategic oil and gas base."

Zeng visited major oil and gas fields in the Tarim Basin late last week after completing a tour of Russia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar - all major oil producers.

Xinjiang pumped 22 million tons of oil last year, or 12 per cent of the nation's total.

Currently China's third largest oil producing region, Xinjiang plans to more than double its oil production to 50 million tons by 2010.

The target, if realized, will place Xinjiang ahead of Daqing in the northeast as the largest oil production base in China.

Beijing also sees Xinjiang as a frontier post from which to pump in imported crude from Central Asian countries.

China and Kazakhstan are building a 1,200-kilometre cross-border oil pipeline to bring in 10 million tons of crude annually from Kazakhstan to Xinjiang.

The pipeline is expected to become operational by the end of the year and plans are in place to double its capacity to 20 million tons in the future.

The development of the oil and gas business will help drive the local economy and create jobs, stabilizing a region where millions of people of about a dozen ethnic minorities live, Beijing hopes.

But experts have warned the prospects of oil exploitation in the region remain uncertain, given its complicated geography. And production costs tend to be much higher than the east as oil companies have to drill deeper in the deserts.

"It is highly risky to explore for oil and gas in Xinjiang," said a veteran engineer with China National Petroleum Corp, the country's largest oil producer.

"More importantly, Xinjiang is far from the major oil markets on the east coast. High transportation costs will largely erode the profit margins of oil companies," the engineer who did not want to be named said yesterday in Beijing.

(China Daily)

 

Vocabulary:
 

untapped: not drawn upon or used(为使用的)

exploitation: the act of making some area of land or water more profitable or productive or useful(开采,开发)

 

 

 
Go to Other Sections
Story Tools
Related Stories
· House price curbs start to take effect
· Up to 40m credit cards 'hacked'
· Daimler will make luxury cars this year
more
 
Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved

版权声明:未经中国日报网站许可,任何人不得复制本栏目内容。如需转载请与本网站联系。
None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.