MOSCOW (MRC) -- China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd., or CNOOC, targeted to produce 545 million-555 million barrels of oil equivalent, or 1.49 million-1.52 million boe/d, of oil and gas in 2021, up about 4.5% from its estimated production of 528 million boe in 2020, on the back of contribution from its 19 new projects, including Buzzard oil field phase II, reported S&P Global with reference to CFO Xie Weizhi's statement in the company's 2021 business strategy briefing call.
The estimated output in 2020 outpaced its target of 505 million-515 million boe set early last year.
The 19 new projects to start up in 2021 are expected to contribute 221,232 b/d toward the company's peak production. In comparison, CNOOC commenced production at eight new projects last year, which contributed a total of 174,652 boe/d to its peak output.
To meet its development target, CNOOC lifted its budget in development to account for 61% of it total capital expenditure of Yuan 90-100 billion (USD13.92 billion-USD15.47 billion), Xie said, adding that the 2021 budget was set on the Brent price assumption of USD50/b.
Looking forward, CNOOC targeted to produce 590 million-600 million boe of oil and gas in 2022 and 640 million-650 million boe in 2023, representing above 8% annual growth, according to Xie.
Meanwhile, the proportion of domestic production was set to fall to 66% in its global output from 68% in 2021, suggesting more overseas projects would start up or resume production as oil price recovers. CNOOC has cut its oil sand and shale production in North America in 2020 due to low oil price.
CNOOC's CEO Xu Keqiang continued to emphasize the future target to significantly lift gas output to account for 30% of the company's production mix from the current 21%.
Lifting of gas output was also a part of the state-owned CNOOC's effort to promote low-carbon transformation to meet China's net zero carbon emissions plan by 2060.
The company planned to invest above 5% of its annual budgets in the coming years in new energy sector from the current 3%-5%, especially offshore wind power.
As MRC informed before, CNOOC Dongfang, a subsidiary of CNOOC, halted production at its propylene plant in Hainan province on March 2 for a schedule turnaround. It was expected that the maintenance at this plant with a capacity of 150,000 mt/year of propylene to continue until mid-April 2021.
Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
CNOOC is China's third largest national oil company after CNPC and Sinopec. The company was founded in 1982. The headquarters is located in Beijing. The company is engaged in the production, processing and marketing of oil and natural gas offshore China. The Chinese government owns 70% of the company's shares.
MRC