In a bid to expand its storage capacity, PetroChina (PTR) has started building an oil storage project in Kunming, the capital city of southwestern Yunnan province. The project is expected to handle 1 million tons of freight annually. It will have a storage capacity of 85,000 cubic meters in the first phase and 150,000 cubic meters after the second phase.  Apart from the storage expansion project, PetroChina has also been actively investing in the refining space. In the last month, the company started operations at the $4 billion Dushanzi refining and chemical complex in the Xinjiang province. The complex consists of a refinery and an ethylene plant with capacities of 10 million tons and 1 million tons a year, respectively. The company estimates that the project may generate approximately $8.8 billion in annual revenue.  Despite the tentative global outlook, China’s fuel demand is expected to remain ...

Following ExxonMobil’s (XOM) agreement last week to buy Kosmos Energy’s stake in oil blocks of the Jubilee oil field -- offshore of the West African country of Ghana -- for approximately $4 billion, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC (CEO), now makes a rival bid. CNOOC is in advanced talks with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, or GNPC. Earlier, many oil majors had shown interest in this deal, including Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) and BP plc (BP). While the Chinese government is keen to secure access to more of the world's oil, the Ghanaian government wants to be a larger participant in Jubilee. The Jubilee region is emerging as a major new oil region, and Ghana is expected to be an oil exporter by the end of next year. The Jubilee field, discovered in 2007 off the coast of Ghana, could potentially ...