China National Petroleum Corp became the first Chinese oil producer to manage a Canadian oil sand project, obtaining rights to exploit 11 fields covering almost 260 square kilometers in Alberta province, Economic Daily reported, citing the Ministry of Commerce. The fields are estimated to be able to produce up to 220,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The majority of Canada’s proven crude reserves have been discovered in Alberta’s oil sand, which have been claimed by the Alberta government to be the largest in world, containing 175 billion barrels of recoverable oil. However, oil sand exploitation is uneconomic when oil prices are low because extracting crude oil from oil sand costs more than traditional drilling.

Faced with increasing competition and the need to accelerate national expansion, CNPC recently reduced its retail oil prices.  Will this stimulate reduced prices from Sinopec as well?

State-owned enterprises and privately held and multinational companies have accelerated their expansion into Xinjiang's energy oil, coal, and natural gas businesses.  Resources are in turn becoming more fully tapped and optimized, and Xinjiang's business environment has matured.

Reports say that the Ministry of Finance plans to encourage more resource-based and high-tech imports, as well as a new taxation policy for resource exports associated with high energy consumption and pollution.  Industry observers think the planned policy is intended to control energy and resource exports to avoid over-exploitation of domestic resources.  In the long run, China seeks a policy that will protect energy security and strengthen energy storage.