PetroChina to place importance on natural gas development in 2011 to 2015

PetroChina will attach great importance to the development of natural gas business during the period from 2011 to 2015, Zhou Mingchun, the company's CFO, at a press conference after the release of its annual report on March 22.

The company will, in particular, focus on the development of non -conventional natural gas, such as CBM and shale gas, he added. Currently, PetroChina's cooperation with Shell in non-convention al gas business is going forward smoothly, he said. PetroChina is looking forward to engage in cooperation with global oil company in non-conventional gas exploration in future, Zhou said.

PetroChina's newly discovered CBM reserve exceeded 100 billion cubic meters in 2010. Its CBM output came to 280 million cubic meters, said Xu Jianmei, deputy chief economist of the company's planning and programming division. The company plans to have an annual CMB output of 600 million cubic meters in 2011 and 4 billion cubic meters by 2015.