China's modest rate of oil production growth is poised for a boost next year when production from a new field in the highly prospective Tarim basin is to go on stream.
Tarim basin oil production is expected to more than double when the basin's fifth field starts flowing.
Success in the Tarim basin has helped sustain China's oil production growth, and the country is on target to increase onshore oil and gas production again this year.
Meantime, China plans to complete in 1997 two pipelines to transport crude from Pinghu and Baoyunting fields in the East China Sea off Zhejiang province to Shanghai, China Daily reported.
TARIM ACTION
Crude production from the Tarim basin is expected to reach 100,000 b/d in 1995 when 4 Tazhong field starts production. Current basin production is 42,000 b/d.
Construction of production facilities for the 4 Tazhong oil field began in mid-July, Beijing's Xinhua News Agency reported, and is to be complete in 1995.
Production from the field is expected to reach 50,000 b/d.
The field was discovered in April 1992, with the discovery well testing at a rate of 1,790 b/d of oil and 1.9 MMcfd of gas from a zone at 3,597-3,607 m (OGJ, Apr. 27, 1992, p. 30).
Xinhua said the country's exploration program calls for 50 wells to be drilled in the basin next year. Oil and gas pipelines and processing facilities are also to be complete in 1995.
ONSHORE PRODUCTION
China's onshore oil production the first half of this year averaged 2.79 million b/d, Xinhua reported, an increase of 12,450 b/d from last year.
Onshore oil production is expected to average 2.81 million b/d this year.
Gas production the first 6 months averaged nearly 1.51 bcfd, up 30 MMcfd from the same time last year, and is to average 1.55 bcfd for the year.
China National Petroleum Corp. said while sluggish sales of crude from the few fields in western China had "shadowed the production prospect," output increases from fields in eastern China had filled the gap.
Oil production from eastern fields accounts for more than 90% of the country's total, but water encroachment sliced production from many of the aging fields (OGJ, May 9, p. 56).
Enhanced oil recovery projects, efforts to improve efficiency, and several discoveries have helped bolster production in the east.
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