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PetroChina produces 30bcm of

gas from Sichuan Basin

PROJECTS & STATE-RUN PetroChina has said its production
COMPANIES from the Sichuan Basin in south-western China
had exceeded 30bn cubic metres as of December
14, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The company has projected that its fields in
the basin will produce around 31.6 bcm by the
end of the year, accounting for one-sixth of the
country’s total gas production. PetroChina said
the basin’s output could exceed 100mn cubic
metres per day and that the company had set a
2025 production target of 50 bcm per year.
The company wants to build China’s largest
modern natural gas industrial base at the basin,
which is also home to the country’s burgeoning
shale gas industry, by 2030.
State-run rival Sinopec, the country’s
biggest producer of shale gas, said in early
November that it had recorded China’s high-
est ever daily output of shale gas at 20.62 mcm The country produced 15.4 bcm of shale gas
at its Fuling field in Chongqing Municipality. last, up 41% year on year, but output is likely to fall
Sinopec said production at Fuling, part of the short of the government’s 30 bcm target for 2020.
Sichuan Basin and the country’s first commer- Nevertheless, new shale gas exploration
cial shale gas development, had stabilised at 20 opportunities continued to be offered to
mcm and the field was capable of delivering investors, with Argus reporting last week
6.7 bcm per year. that Guizhou Province was holding an
The central government is eager to see shale exploration bid round for six blocks. The
gas production take off, with its move earlier this auction is part of efforts to diversify the
year to relax regulations surrounding foreign shale gas industry away from the Sichuan
and private investment in the wider upstream Basin, which holds around 80% of the coun-
anticipated to contribute to this goal. try’s technically recoverable resources.™

OCEANIA

Tamboran expands

Australian shale portfolio

FINANCE & AUSTRALIAN junior Tamboran Resources has Tamboran described the acquisition of the
INVESTMENT agreed to acquire Longview Petroleum’s 100% new licences as “highly strategic”, significantly
stake in Sweetpea Petroleum, securing control of expanding its presence in the Beetaloo sub-ba-
exploration acreage in the Northern Territory’s sin beyond its current 25% working interest in
Beetaloo shale play. Santos’s EP 161.
The privately owned developer Tamboran said the deal would allow it to
announced on December 10 that the all- become an operator in the basin once again,
scrip deal would see Longview receive a after Santos farmed into EP 161 in 2012. The
29.95% equity stake in Tamboran as well as junior said the Sweetpea acquisition not only
the ability to appoint a non-executive direc- consolidated the company’s Beetaloo Basin
tor to former company’s board. focus, where it “has developed in-depth tech-
Tamboran added that it expected to secure nical knowledge”, but it also provides for sig-
regulatory approval in early 2021 and once the nificant “reserve growth”.
deal closed it would wholly own and operate Tamboran said: “EP136 sits adjacent to EP161
exploration permits (EPs) 136, 143 and 197(A). and, in combination, [they] cover the portion of

Week 50 17•December•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9