Gulf region oil producers "east look" PetroChina's "friends circle" expansion

China National Petroleum Corporation Limited (CNPC) has launched fruitful oil and gas cooperation in the Gulf region and will produce 95 million tons of crude oil this year, according to a news release on its website.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, as the world's political and economic center has moved eastward, more and more Gulf countries have turned their attention to the East. At present, although the oil demand of developed countries dominates the world oil demand market, with the increase of the GNP of developing countries, the oil consumption has overtaken the developed countries. Data show that China has become the largest oil exporter of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and other Gulf countries in recent years.

Sources pointed out that PetroChina, with a view to the future, has carefully planned its medium- and long-term development strategy and carried out fruitful oil and gas cooperation in the Gulf region. In the field of investment, PetroChina Middle East Company currently operates 13 projects in the Gulf region. This year, it will produce 95 million tons of crude oil, expand the scale of oil-gas cooperation and trade, and further improve the quality of development. In the field of engineering and technical services, Oriental geophysical prospecting has ranked first in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Oman for many years. In the field of Engineering construction, China Petroleum Engineering Construction Co., Ltd. has successfully won five projects in the United Arab Emirates. The EPC General Contracting Project (BIFP) for the comprehensive facilities of the Papua Oilfield, which started construction in June, has a contract value of $1.52 billion.

The news also believed that the "one belt and one way" initiative has given historic opportunities to PetroChina's overseas oil and gas cooperation. In particular, the active promotion of energy diplomacy and successive breakthroughs in major projects have laid a solid foundation for China's oil and gas cooperation in the Gulf countries. With the successful operation of one cooperation project after another, PetroChina's "circle of friends" in the Gulf region has gradually expanded, and has established stable cooperative relations with ExxonMobil, Malaysian Petroleum Corporation and other major international companies.

Data show that China's crude oil imports of 420 million tons in 2017, surpassing the United States as the world's largest oil importer.

It is understood that on October 10, the 8615B team of the Oriental Geophysical Exploration Co., Ltd. ("Oriental Geophysical Prospecting") of CNPC completed the three-dimensional field acquisition project of the land and sea project of CNPC International Middle East Company, and is working intensively on the land exploration project of Abu Dhabi National Petroleum Corporation.

The land and sea project was the first investment project of the Middle East Company in the United Arab Emirates in 2013. As a result of the successful operation of the project, China and Argentina signed a land cooperation project in 2017 and joined hands again on the maritime cooperation project in March this year. Sino Arab energy cooperation has been accelerating and fruitful.

Energy cooperation is the highlight of Sino Arab Economic and trade cooperation. With the continuous improvement of cooperation level, UAE is becoming a gateway for Gulf States to "look eastward".

The Gulf countries saw the development opportunities brought about by China's economic "express train" and accelerated the pace of cooperation with China's oil enterprises. At present, the Gulf region is active in the Middle East Company, Oriental Geophysical Exploration, Daqing Drilling, Pipeline Bureau and other 20 investment and professional branches, business covers the oil and gas industry chain, the development potential and space is huge.

In order to diversify investment, the Gulf countries "look eastward" and the monopoly of the region's oil industry by Western oil companies has been broken. Oil-producing countries fully support the cooperation between their oil companies and China's oil companies. Nowadays, attracting Chinese capital has become an inevitable choice for oil-producing countries to rapidly improve oil efficiency and reduce political risks. Regional cooperation has become a major trend in deepening oil cooperation.