CHINA National Petroleum Corp said yesterday that its Kazakhstan venture has discovered crude oil and natural gas in two blocks in that country as it revs up exploration overseas.
CNPC, parent of PetroChina Co, the nation's top oil company, said that its PetroKazakhstan Inc unit has made an "important breakthrough" in the Karaganda and Doshan blocks, according to a Website statement.
"The discoveries are strategically important and the areas feature good exploration prospects and commercial value," CNPC said in the statement.
CNPC in October 2005 bought PetroKazakhstan for US$4.18 billion in the biggest overseas takeover by a Chinese energy company as it bids to boost production.
The Karabulak-2 well in the Karaganda block yielded 203.2 cubic meters of oil a day during trial operations and the Doshan-14 well produced 108.8 cubic meters a day, the statement said.
Oil flows at the Doshan-15 well reached 33.89 cubic meters a day and its daily gas output hit 173,100 cubic meters, according to the statement. The firm has already started exploring the Doshan-16 well, it said.
CNPC's pre-tax profit dived 39 percent from a year before to 56.4 billion yuan (US$8.3 billion) in the first half, earlier media reports said.
The drop was partly due to refining losses and payment of a special windfall levy on crude sales by the oil firm.
PetroChina tumbled 4.04 percent to 13.31 yuan in Shanghai, against a 5.34-percent slump in the Shanghai Composite Index.