Original title: Oil and gas companies transform, seek change, and create synergy to create benefits
On March 25, with the release of PetroChina's 2023 financial report, the "Three Barrels of Oil" annual report has been released. Data shows that the three major oil and gas companies made a total profit of more than 340 billion yuan last year. At the same time, the capital expenditures of the three companies continue to remain strong, with total capital expenditures expected to exceed 500 billion yuan this year.
Impressive performance indicators
In 2023, Sinopec's oil and gas equivalent production, crude oil processing volume, total domestic refined oil sales and ethylene production hit record highs, and cash flow from operating activities increased significantly year-on-year. According to Sinopec’s analysis, this is mainly due to actively leveraging the advantages of integration, optimizing the production and operation organization in an all-round way, and vigorously creating synergy to create benefits.
In 2023, PetroChina will vigorously strengthen oil and gas exploration and development, steadily implement green and low-carbon transformation, and promote the integrated development of oil and gas and new energy. The development of new energy and new materials business will accelerate. With oil prices falling sharply by 16.8% year-on-year, the company's operating performance It has hit a record high for two consecutive years, and the industrial chain's resilience to changes in macro factors such as oil prices has significantly increased.
Behind the performance growth, the upstream businesses of the three major oil and gas companies have increased reserves and production, effectively ensuring national energy security. Sinopec continues to strengthen high-quality exploration, and has made major breakthroughs in the Shunbei New Zone of the Tarim Basin and the deep coalbed methane in the Ordos Basin. The construction of the "Deep Earth Project" and the Shengli Jiyang Shale Oil National Demonstration Zone has been efficiently advanced, and oil and gas production has been stable. increase. The annual oil and gas equivalent output was 70.92 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 3.1%.
PetroChina continues to promote efficient exploration and strives to increase economically recoverable reserves, and has made a number of major breakthroughs and important discoveries in key basins such as Ordos, Tarim, Sichuan, and the Bohai Bay. Strengthening the stable production of old oil and gas fields and efficient production construction in new areas, crude oil production remained stable and increased, and natural gas production continued to grow rapidly. In 2023, the company's oil and gas equivalent production will be 1.76 billion barrels, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%.
China National Offshore Oil Corporation continued to accelerate its pace of production increase, achieving net oil and gas production of 678 million barrels of oil equivalent throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%, setting a new historical record for five consecutive years. Continuing to improve the efficiency of oil field development, the natural decline rate of China's offshore oil fields in production has steadily declined, and the production hour rate has remained at a high level.
Fu Xiangsheng, vice president of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, said that while continuing to innovate and stabilize old oil fields, energy and petrochemical companies such as PetroChina, Sinopec, and CNOOC are increasing exploration and development of deep sea, western and shale oil and gas resources, and are constantly adding new ones. New breakthroughs have been made in proven geological reserves, laying a solid foundation for ensuring national energy security. Data from the National Energy Administration shows that in 2023, my country's crude oil production will reach 208 million tons, a year-on-year increase of more than 3 million tons; natural gas production will reach 230 billion cubic meters, maintaining a production increase of 10 billion cubic meters for seven consecutive years.
The pace of transformation accelerates
Performance growth also benefited from the transformation and upgrading of downstream businesses. Sinopec responds to market changes at low cost through optimization and adjustment of its refining and chemical business. In terms of oil refining, we will flexibly adjust the processing load and product structure in line with market demand, coordinate the rhythm of "oil conversion" and "oil to special oil", increase the production of marketable products such as refined oil and lubricants, and optimize the export rhythm and structure. In terms of chemical industry, we are efficiency-oriented, optimizing raw materials, equipment and product structure, strengthening cost control, reducing industrial chain costs, closely integrating production, marketing, research and application, and steadily increasing the proportion of high value-added products.
PetroChina is also deeply promoting the transformation and upgrading of refining and chemical products, moving towards the middle and high end of the industrial chain and value chain. Seize the favorable opportunity for market recovery to continuously optimize the product structure, increase the proportion of specialty refining products and high-end chemical products, increase the research and development of new chemical materials, and increase the production of general materials such as linear polyethylene film materials, metallocene polyethylene film materials, and medical materials. Best-selling special materials. In 2023, the company's new chemical material output will be 1.37 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 60%. The new refining and chemical materials business achieved an operating profit of 36.94 billion yuan.
Oil and gas companies are accelerating their green transformation. PetroChina has steadily promoted the green and low-carbon transformation of its terminal sales business, successfully acquired Putian New Energy Co., Ltd., and actively carried out the construction layout of charging and swapping stations, hydrogenation stations, photovoltaic stations, etc. The new energy business has achieved large-scale and leap-forward development, with the new energy development and utilization capacity reaching 11.5 million tons of standard coal per year, a year-on-year increase of 44%. Sinopec seized the favorable opportunity of the rapid rebound in market demand, gave full play to its integration advantages, vigorously expanded market sales and increased efficiency, and transformed into an integrated energy service provider of "oil, gas, hydrogen and electricity services".
Strengthen development momentum
The transformation of "three barrels of oil" reflects the development trend of the industry. In recent years, with the rapid expansion of domestic integrated refining and chemical production capacity and the continuous advancement of the "reducing oil and increasing chemical" strategy, problems such as duplication of low-level production capacity and structural excess of bulk general chemical products have continued to affect the healthy and sustainable development of the industry and enterprises. Liu Xiaohua, Secretary of the Party Committee of Sinopec Anqing Branch, suggested that the supply-side structural reform of the petrochemical industry should be deepened, and the petrochemical industry should be promoted through various methods such as the establishment of a catalog and project library of domestic general-purpose severely surplus petrochemical products and the replacement of production capacity for mid- to low-end products. Healthy and high-quality development.
At the same time, my country's petrochemical industry still lacks strong innovation capabilities in areas such as high-end new chemical materials. Data show that my country's new materials industry still has 32% of key materials in the blank, and 52% of key materials still rely on imports. Mo Dingge, chairman and party secretary of Sinopec Ningbo Zhenhai Refining and Chemical Co., Ltd., suggested that "development optimization and benefit maximization" should be the guide, differentiated policy support should be provided to key links in the innovation and development of the entire petrochemical industry chain, and efforts should be concentrated to strengthen Make innovative breakthroughs and strive to improve the resilience, integrity and safety level of the industrial and supply chains.
Looking forward to 2024, Ma Yongsheng, chairman of Sinopec, said that China's economy will continue to rebound and the energy and chemical industry will also accelerate its transformation. It is expected that domestic demand for natural gas, refined oil and chemical products will maintain growth, bringing new development opportunities. Sinopec will pay more attention to value creation, cultivate new productive forces, strive to promote transformation and upgrading, and expand space for efficiency creation; it will also strive to strengthen scientific and technological research, strengthen development momentum, and promote sustainable development. (Economic Daily reporter Wang Yichen)