China to allow foreign exploration in key oil, gas blocks

BEIJING (AFP) – China will allow foreign companies a rare chance to conduct exploration for oil and gas in parts of the resource-rich Tarim Basin in the northwest of the country, the country’s top energy company says.

The China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation’s largest oil and gas producer, said it will invite bids from foreign companies for exploration in nine potential oil and gas blocks in the basin.

“We’re inviting foreign partners to jointly explore the largest gas and oil basin in the Chinese mainland,” CNPC, the parent of PetroChina, said in a statement on its website.

It said several foreign oil companies had already expressed an interest in participating in projects in the Tarim Basin but provided no names.

AFP