China vows green future for oil and gas works

China has vowed to vigorously promote the integrated growth of oil and gas exploration and development with new energy, while actively expanding the scale of green electricity utilization by oil and gas enterprises.

By 2025, cumulative crude oil production will increase by more than 2 million metric tons through enhanced oil recovery methods, according to an action plan to accelerate integrated development of oil and gas exploration and development with new energy resources, released by the National Energy Administration recently.

The enhanced oil recovery methods include air injection, carbon dioxide injection and electric heating assistance for heavy oil thermal recovery — and all these methods will be supported by low-cost green power, it said.

Enhanced oil recovery, also known as tertiary recovery, is the third stage used to extract oil from an oil reserve. While more costly and expensive compared with the primary and secondary recovery stages, it can extract more of a reserve's oil compared with primary and secondary recoveries.

The administration also aims to further accelerate the development and utilization of geothermal, wind and solar energy resources related to oil and gas fields, while actively promoting an environmentally friendly, energy-saving, emission-reducing and multi-energy integrated oil and gas production system and striving to build "low-carbon" and "zero-carbon "oil and gas fields, it said.

An analyst said China's mature oil-producing regions have gradually entered the late stage of development, facing difficulties such as insufficient replacement of oil and gas resources, difficulties in maintaining stable production and high production costs.

It is necessary to strengthen the development and utilization of new energy and promote the transformation and development of traditional oil and gas production into comprehensive energy development and utilization and a new materials manufacturing base, said Luo Zuoxian, head of intelligence and research at the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute.

According to the administration, China's economy has been growing steadily, with energy demand expected to continue increasing. It is therefore necessary to ensure sufficient oil and gas supplies while accelerating the industry's green and low-carbon transformation at the same time.

Efficient development and utilization of new energy will help meet demand from increased power demand for the electrification of oil and gas fields, it said.