Sinopec adds more crude reserves, less gas in 2006

BEIJING, Dec 25 (Reuters) Sinopec Group has found an estimated 30 percent more recoverable crude oil reserves this year than it did last year, but additions of recoverable natural gas reserves are estimated to have fallen by more than 40 percent, an industry newspaper reported on Monday.

China Petrochemical News, Sinopec's in-house paper, said the company will have found 45 million tonnes of recoverable oil reserves and 73.9 billion cubic metres of natural gas reserves by the end of 2006.

Most of Sinopec Group's business operations are in its listed vehicle, Sinopec Corp..

The new crude oil reserves would represent a 30.5 percent increase from last year's 34.47 million tonnes, while the new gas reserves would be 42.6 percent lower than last year's findings of 128.7 billion cubic metres, according to data on the group's Web site (www.sinopecgroup.com).

Last year's sizable natural gas figure was due to the discovery of Puguang, a major field in southwest China's Sichuan province.

Production at Sinopec's existing, mature oilfields in the east has been mostly flat, while output in the remote northwest regions has been on the rise in recent years, the paper said.

The paper also forecast that Sinopec's crude output this year would exceed 40 million tonnes (800,000 barrels per day), up 1.9 percent from 2005, and that gas output would be 7 billion cubic metres, up 11 percent.

Sinopec Group is also expected to reap 4.5 million tonnes of equity oil production from its overseas operations, an increase of 120 percent from last year, the report said, although it gave no details on those operations.

The firm has small production operations in Kazakhstan and Africa, but made its biggest foreign acquisition earlier this year of a medium-sized Russian oilfield, the 120,000 barrel-per-day Udmurtneft.

REUTERS SBA KN1601