China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) turned out 30.1 million tons of crude oil and 3.55 billion cubic meters of gas in its overseas cooperative oilfields in 2004, up 20 percent and 84.6 percent from 2003. 

According to CNPC president Chen Geng, the corporation signed eight investment and cooperation contracts last year, including a group of key projects such as the Sino-Kazakstan gas pipeline project.

To date, CNPC has cumulatively signed 48 investment and cooperation contracts overseas with 20 countries.

The contracts signed include an exploration project in Algeria, an oilfield project in Iran and oilfield and gas pipeline projects in Sudan, Kazakstan and Venezuela.

The DIFFRA Oilfield in Sudan went into operation last March, which was expected to produce one million tons of crude annually. About 40 percent of the total engineering work had been completed in Sudan.

Moreover, the construction of an oilfield with a production capacity topping one million tons in Kazakstan is in full swing. An oil refinery project in Venezuela with a refining capacity of 6.5 million tons is going smoothly.

The first expansion project of the oil refinery in Sudan was completed last August and construction started for the second expansion project.

In addition, China's first transnational crude transmission pipeline project linking Xinjiang with Kazakstan was launched in late September last year.

CNPC also signed contracts totaling US$2.3 billion in terms of oil equipment export and international engineering services in the same year, Chen said, adding that CNPC's overseas oil and gas trade hit US$10 billion. 

(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2005)