Three oil giants set production records last year

China's three State-owned oil giants set new production records last year despite a slowdown in global economic growth and lower international crude oil prices, as they stepped up oil and gas exploration to ensure domestic energy security.

China National Petroleum Corp, or PetroChina, saw its oil and gas equivalent production reach a new high of 1.76 billion barrels last year, up 4.4 percent year-on-year, while that of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, rose 3.1 percent year-on-year to 70.92 million metric tons, also a historic high.

China National Offshore Oil Corp set records in both reserves and production last year, with net oil and gas production reaching 678 million barrels of oil equivalent, representing a year-on-year growth of 8.7 percent, a record for five consecutive years.

The compound annual growth rate of net production reached 7.6 percent last year, marking the company as an industry leader in terms of production growth, it said.

The record oil and gas output is a result of accelerating investment in domestic oil and gas exploration amid rising energy prices in recent years, said Luo Zuoxian, head of intelligence and research at the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute.

Luo said China's seven-year action plan for increasing reserves and production of oil and gas has yielded significant results in recent years, with the three major oil companies making notable progress by intensifying technological innovation and adjusting institutional mechanisms.

They have continued to increase investments, particularly in deep-water, deep-layer and unconventional oil and gas fields, resulting in effective advancement, he said.

Li Ziyue, an analyst with BloombergNEF, said national oil companies have endeavored to ensure supply security, which is expected to support robust expansion of gas output in future.

According to Luo, amid the rapid development of the renewable energy industry at home and abroad, the oil majors are also accelerating their green and low-carbon transformation, laying out new energy-related plans as the country goes full throttle on its green energy transition to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

While PetroChina has been stepping up wind and solar power projects in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, actively promoting carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS, to enhance the conversion rate of clean electricity and grid connection, CNOOC has been vigorously promoting the integrated development of new energy and offshore oil and gas production, including offshore wind power platforms and onshore photovoltaic projects.

Sinopec, aiming to become China's leading hydrogen energy company, has been focusing on hydrogen energy transportation, green hydrogen refining, and establishing hydrogen energy businesses, in addition to steady growth in wind and solar power generation.

Lu Ruquan, head of the China National Petroleum Corp Economics and Technology Research Institute, said new energy will grow by leaps and bounds in the next decade, helping the technology and manufacturing capabilities of the country to facilitate a faster global energy transition.

PetroChina saw its refinery crude throughput rise 15.3 percent year-on-year to around 1.4 billion barrels, compared with the previous year's 1 percent decline. It has vowed to continue promoting the refining and chemical business toward the middle and high-end of the industry chain in the future.

Sinopec saw its crude oil processing volume and total domestic refined oil sales hit record highs in 2023, with crude oil processing volume reaching 258 million tons, up 6.3 percent year-on-year, and domestic sales of refined oil reaching 188 million tons, up 15.8 percent year-on-year, it said.

In 2024, as the Chinese economy continues to recover and improve, the energy and chemical industry in the country will also accelerate its transformation, said Ma Yongsheng, chairman of Sinopec.