(Yicai Global) Oct. 19 -- China’s three oil and gas titans are increasing their output of natural gas through investment in existing facilities and the continued exploration for more reserves to ensure adequate supply to the country’s northern regions as people turn up the heating during the chilly winter months, online news outlet The Paper reported.

China National Offshore Oil Corp., China National Petroleum Corp. and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., also known as Sinopec, are all spending more on natural gas production and exploration, the report said.

CNOOC has hiked daily output by over 3 million cubic meters year-on-year through more refined management of over 200 offshore gas wells, China’s biggest offshore oil and gas producer said yesterday. It expects to supply around 10 billion cubic meters of gas nationwide over the winter and next spring, 80 percent of which will come from its offshore wells.

CNOOC has just built seven adjustable storage wells to boost reserves and ensure adequate output, said Pan Yiyong, deputy general manager of the company’s department of exploration and development. The Beijing-based firm hopes to have all of them in operation during peak season. It is also investing more in developing onshore oil and gas.

China National Petroleum Corp.’s Changqing Oilfield runs the biggest natural gas facility in China, supplying around a quarter of the country’s needs. Output has increased by 10 million cubic meters a day this year, compared with a year earlier.

The Changqing oilfield has enacted the biggest capacity expansion in history, and annual production should soon climb to a record 50 billion cubic meters, said Wang Zhenjia, deputy general manager of the oilfield, which is located in northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Sinopec has discovered new shale gas reserves in the Sichuan Basin in southwest China, with a daily output of 258,600 cubic meters, the firm said yesterday. The Cambrian strata in the basin has evaluated reserves of 387.8 billion cubic meters and as such has huge potential for future gas explorations.

China’s natural gas output has increased by over 10 billion cubic meters a year over the last five years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. And it is likely to reach 220 billion cubic meters this year, the National Energy Administration and the Ministry of Natural Resources said.

China’s energy self-sufficiency ratio is above 80 percent. This provides solid energy guarantees to spur economic and social development, Ren Jingdong, deputy director of the National Energy Administration, said at the ongoing National Congress of the Communist Pary of China on Oct. 17.

Editor: Kim Taylor