Significant signal! The National Energy Administration held a meeting: using the power of the entire industry to promote oil and gas reserves and production

   Both the National Government Network and the National Energy Administration's official website issued a message: On July 21, the National Energy Administration organized a meeting in Beijing to vigorously enhance oil and gas exploration and development in 2020, and thoroughly implemented the important instructions of General Secretary Jin Ping on the oil and gas field. Spirit, sum up the progress and experience of the previous work, and study and deploy the next step.

   The meeting pointed out that in the face of the dual impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and low oil prices, relevant departments, localities, and oil companies have coordinated to overcome difficulties and use the power of the entire industry to promote oil and gas reserves and production. Oil and gas production indicators continue to improve, and exploration is vigorously improved. Significant progress has been made in development efforts and the construction of a natural gas production, supply, storage and marketing system.

   This conference has clear requirements for the upstream industry's production capacity construction, key technological breakthroughs, proven reserves, and unconventional oil and gas development. Although short, it is a must-read for oil and gas industry practitioners.

   Production capacity construction Technological breakthroughs Reserve development

   The meeting put forward clear requirements for stable oil and gas production and set the tone-

   The meeting emphasized that it is necessary to strengthen political responsibility, make overall plans for epidemic prevention and control and stable oil and gas production, and complete the major political task of ensuring the safety of oil and gas supply.

   At the same time, the meeting also put forward specific requirements for the next step of work——

   The first level is for exploration and development:

   In the next step, we must implement the spirit of vigorously enhancing exploration and development efforts into the "14th Five-Year" energy development plan.

▶ Fully coordinate and promote a batch of potential and restricted capacity construction projects

▶ Focus on breakthroughs in key technologies for oil and gas exploration and development

▶ Speed up the utilization of proven unused reserves

▶ Increase the development and utilization of unconventional oil and gas resources

▶ Continue to improve supporting policies

The second level is for oil and gas storage and transportation:

   Effectively promote the construction of the middle section of the China-Russia Eastern Route, major interconnection projects and gas storage capacity, and continuously improve the natural gas production, supply, storage and marketing system.

   This is not the first time this year that the country has made clear requirements for oil and gas exploration, development and production. Last month, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the "Guiding Opinions on Doing a Good Job in Energy Security in 2020". The requirements related to the oil and gas industry are: to vigorously improve energy production and supply capacity, actively promote domestic oil and gas production and increase production; promote oil and gas pipeline Construction is based on "a national network"; stabilizing the supply of imported oil and gas resources; focusing on enhancing energy storage capacity, accelerating the construction of gas storage facilities, and so on.

   After only one month, the National Energy Administration convened a meeting again to re-emphasize the importance of oil and gas exploration, development and production, and further "closely" and put forward clear requirements for oil companies.

   This meeting was held specifically for upstream oil and gas exploration and development, elevating the task of stabilizing oil and gas production to a political task. At the same time, several work directions were clarified at the meeting: fully coordinate and promote a batch of potential and restricted capacity construction projects; focus on breaking through a series of key technologies for oil and gas exploration and development; speed up the utilization of proven unused reserves; increase unconventional oil and gas The intensity of resource development and utilization.

   Is it better to buy? The country gives the answer

   The meeting put forward that "accelerating the utilization of proven unused reserves" is a clear direction for oilfield development, and it has been seldom mentioned before.

   This has a lot to do with the plunge in international oil prices this year and the downturn in the industry. In the face of low oil prices, the voices of "buy is worse than production" are heard. There is a view that the role of the three barrels of oil should be changed, from an oil and gas producer to a trader.

   Increasing oil storage capacity and replenishing the national oil and gas inventory are indeed crucial, and it is also the highlight of the national energy work this year. In April this year, the five departments jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Natural Gas Reserve Capacity." The work promotion meeting also emphasized that we should effectively promote the construction of the middle section of the Sino-Russian Eastern Route, major interconnection projects and gas storage capacity, and continuously improve the natural gas production, supply, storage and marketing system.

   These are based on the content of the oil and gas storage and transportation level. But does "heavy storage and transportation" mean "light production" and "light exploration and development"? This meeting gave a clear answer: We must implement the spirit of vigorously enhancing exploration and development efforts into the "14th Five-Year" energy development plan.

   Regarding increasing oil and gas exploration and development, Chen Shouhai, director of the Oil and Gas Policy and Legal Research Center of China University of Petroleum (Beijing), said in an interview with China Electric Power News: Increasing oil and gas exploration and development is based on bottom-line thinking to improve my country's energy security level. Strategic measures are long-term policy orientations.

   He believes that increasing oil and gas exploration and development and promoting the increase in natural gas (not only conventional natural gas) production are nothing more than two aspects. One is to increase investment and the other is to advance technology.

   There is a saying in the oil and gas industry: "Money can't get in, and oil (gas) can't get out." Increasing oil and gas exploration and development usually means finding ways to increase investment. One way to increase investment is to increase investment by existing oil and gas companies, and the other is to encourage more investors to invest in oil and gas exploration and development. In recent years, due to changes in the international political and economic environment, national policies have emphasized domestic resource development. The three major oil companies, the absolute main force in my country’s oil and gas industry, have increased domestic oil and gas exploration investment, enabling my country’s oil production to remain relatively stable and natural gas production to be rapid. increase. However, oil and gas prices in the international market are low, and the willingness of oil and gas companies to invest is not strong. At the same time, it also limits the investment ability of oil and gas companies.

   To attract more funds to invest in oil and gas exploration and development, we must further implement and expand the opening up of oil and gas exploration and development fields, and attract more investment entities to enter this field. The current low oil price environment is a good time to expand and open up oil and gas exploration and development.

   From a longer-term perspective, the exploration and development of oil and gas resources and the development of the oil and gas industry depend on technological progress. In the more than one hundred years since the birth of the world oil and gas industry, due to technological advances, oil and gas wells have become deeper and deeper, well positions have become more and more accurate, and mining technologies have become higher and higher. In the past, technical and economically unrecoverable resources have become technological and economic. Recoverable resources have broken the "resource exhaustion theory" time and time again, and oil and gas production has continued to increase. The shale gas revolution is a recent example. Before technological breakthroughs, shale gas was an unrecoverable resource enclosed in underground rock formations by tight shale. With breakthroughs in fracturing technology, shale gas has become a recoverable resource and even the main source of natural gas production in the United States. The so-called "poor oil and less gas" in our country is the understanding of resources under the technical conditions in the past. Now, we believe that my country has abundant shale gas and natural gas hydrate resources. However, the exploration and development of these resources also requires exploration and exploitation technologies suitable for my country's resource conditions. Therefore, to promote my country's oil and gas exploration and development, we must find ways to promote technological progress and develop oil and gas exploration and production technologies suitable for my country's resource conditions.

From "Petroleum Circle"