Chevron China gas field start delayed

BEIJING: The first gas production at Chuandongbei gas field in southwestern Sichuan province, a joint project between CNPC and Chevron, will be delayed to the end of 2011 from 2010, according to a CNPC executive.

"We see first output at the end of 2011," Yan Cunzhang, head of the foreign cooperation department under CNPC, said in a presentation to the International Oil and Gas Conference in Beijing. He did not elaborate. Yan said in September 2009 that first production was expected this year.

CNPC, parent of PetroChina, entered a 30-year product sharing contract in Dec. 2007 to develop the high-sulphur gas field using technology from Chevron, which will be the operator of the field.

The Chuandongbei block, covering 1,970 square kilometres, has proven gas reserves of 176 billion cubic metres (bcm) and companies said in 2007 that they planned to process the gas at two plants with total of 740 million cubic feet per day, or 7.6 bcm a year.