China’s CNOOC ups spending

China’s oil and gas producer and LNG stakeholder, CNOOC said Thursday it plans to raise its capital spending in 2017 as oil and gas prices improved allowing the company to move forward with new projects.

The company said it in a statement it would raise capital expenditure to 60 billion to 70 billion yuan ($8.7 billion to $10.2 billion) for 2017, first increase in the last two years.

CNOOC set its production target to between 450 million to 460 million barrels of oil equivalent, of which approximately 64% and 36% are produced in China and overseas, respectively.

CNOOC aims to bring five projects online this year, of which the Penglai 19-9 oilfield comprehensive adjustment project and the Enping 23-1 oilfields in China have commenced production.

The other three projects, namely phase two of the Weizhou 12-2 oilfield project in China, the BD gas field in Indonesia and the Hangingstone project in Canada would commence production as scheduled in the year. Currently, nearly 20 projects are being built, according to CNOOC.

In 2017, the Company plans to drill 126 exploration wells and acquire about 13 thousand square kilometers of 3D seismic data.