Weatherford, Sinopec Form JV
Weatherford International, Sinopec Oilfield Service Corporation and Shengli Highland Petroleum Equipment on Wednesday signed an agreement to form a joint venture to exploit China’s vast unconventional resources.
Sinopec Oilfield Services Corporation is the oilfield services arm of Sinopec Group. Weatherford is one of the largest multinational oilfield service companies.
“The joint venture will combine the complementary strengths of each of its parent companies to provide products and services within a collaborative framework helping to tap into the vast unconventional resource base in mainland China," said Weatherford.
According to a statement by Sinopec, the new entity will cover technical services to oil and gas drilling and well completion, and will also manufacture tools.
"Each company brings distinct, yet complementary expertise in oilfield services. The joint venture will strengthen Weatherford's long-term commitment and growth in China. The specific country geology presents challenging opportunities to build efficiencies into complex wells. With the depth and breadth of our services expertise, industry-leading products and innovative technologies, the agreement will help unlock the large potential presented by the development and production of oil and gas in China. This is our first step. We envision we will bring the full range of Weatherford's oilfield services capabilities to China, helping achieve targets of tapping into one of the world's largest reserves of unconventional fuels," Bernard J. Duroc-Danner, Weatherford's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer said.
Sinopec has devoted resources in exploring for unconventional natural gasses, especially shale gas. Earlier this year Sinopec announced it is planning to develop the Fuling shale gas field into China’s first shale gas field.
The field is projected to have an annual production capacity of 10 billion cubic meters by 2017.
The Fuling shale gas field in Chongqing has reserves of 2.1 trillion cubic meters and Sinopec expects the annual capacity of Fuling shale gas field to reach 1.8 billion cubic meters by the end of 2014 and 5 billion cubic meters by 2015, a ten-fold increase than previously planned.