China National Petroleum Corp has ramped up production at its gas fields in Turkmenistan in anticipation of higher winter demand in China, the company said Tuesday.
Gas from the Amu Darya project's 31 wells is now flowing at rate of 19.8 million cubic meters/d or nearly 700,000 Mcf/d, while sales volumes have risen 11.7% year on year to 18.1 million cu m/d, CNPC said.
Gas production comes from two blocks in the Bagtyiarlyk contract area on the right bank of the Amu Darya River. CNPC signed a production sharing agreement for the acreage in 2007 and production started in 2010.
CNPC said it has primarily carried out capacity expansion at Block A, where the gas processing capacity is now 6.5 billion cu m/year, while sales gas send-out capacity has reached a new high of 18 million cu m/d.
A second phase development will see the gas processing capacity at the whole project expanded to 8 billion cu m/year by the first half of 2014, CNPC said.
The gas is fed into the Central Asia-China gas pipeline network which runs from Turkmenistan and cuts through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before reaching western China. Ongoing construction of a third parallel line will see the pipeline network expanded to 65 billion cu m/year by the end of this year, CNPC has said previously.
CNPC attributed the recent higher production to the need for more supplies to meet peak winter demand in China. CNPC, as well as other state-owned companies, have been urged by the Chinese government to maximize gas supplies over the November-March period.
Still, China's National Development and Reform Commission has forecast a likely gas supply shortfall of about 22 billion cu m over the winter months, with demand likely to reach at least 192 billion cu m.