Wednesday, February 4, 2004
Chinese oil giant to bid for Iranian oil field Beijing
PTI
BEIJING: Unfazed by US pressure, China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec group), the nation's second-largest oil company, will continue its bidding for developing 16 Iranian oil fields, state media reported today. Sinopec will continue its bidding for developing 16 Iranian oil fields despite attempts by the United States to urge it to drop out of the bidding, " China Daily " reported.
It said Sinopec is among a group of companies interested in the Iranian blocks, after a Japanese consortium bowed to Washington's pressure and pulled out earlier.
The United States believes that the oil deals would thwart its attempts to quash Iran's suspected nuclear weapons programme through economic sanctions, it said.
"The US embassy in China has contacted the Sinopec about our plans in Iran, but we have told them that we will continue with all of our efforts there," an unnamed Sinopec official was quoted as saying by the paper which cited a western financial wire service.
The refinery-heavy Sinopec group has been active in searching for overseas oil reserves to feed its refineries. The company accounts for 80 per cent of Chinese imports, and more than half of its oil imports came from the Middle East.
The Sinopec already has an exploration project in place at the Zavareh-kashan block in Iran. Meanwhile, the Sinopec group received an offer late last month to explore and produce natural gas in Saudi Arabia, the paper said. The deal is part of Riyadh's plan to open up its gas reserves that had been off-limits to foreigners for a quarter of a century, the paper said.
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.