China’s CNOOC Ltd is increasing investment in renewable energy over the next five years, with some projects involving offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS).
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Chairman Wang Dongjin told investors this week his company will earmark up to 10% of its annual budget for green energy towards the end of the current five-year development period (2021-2025), up from 5% this year.
It is also targeting its renewable energy business to generate half of total annual revenues by 2050%.
“During the 14th five-year period, CNOOC Ltd will raise the investment in new energy to account for 5% to 10% of its total annual budget,” Wang said.
Based on estimated CNOOC Ltd’s average annual investment budget of 100 billion yuan ($15.4 billion) for the next five years, 5% to 10% will mean an outlay of 5 billion yuan to 10 billion yuan a year, he said.
The company has finalised the scheme to apply CCS technology at its Enping 15-1 oilfield in the Pearl River Mouth basin of the South China Sea, involving technology and facilities to reinject CO2 into the reservoirs to enhance oil recovery.
However, Wang said the investment in new energy will largely go to solar and offshore wind projects, which require comparatively smaller investment. In a later phase of the 14th five-year period, “the investment in new energy will be higher”.
Chief executive Xu Keqiang earlier said that CNOOC Ltd would earmark more than 5% of its annual budget for clean energy projects in 2021, equating to between 4.5 billion yuan and 5 billion yuan from this year's capital expenditure budget of 90 billion yuan to 100 billion yuan.
The investment in new energy is higher than the 3% to 5% planned early last year.
Wang said the new energy business is new to CNOOC Ltd: “The development is still at its infancy.”
He added that the company has completed the overall planning intended to play its part in achieving China’s target of carbon emissions peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
The state-controlled player has just won government approval to develop a wind project offshore Shantou city in southern China’s Guangdong province, the second of its kind for CNOOC Ltd.
Last September, the company started operations at its first offshore wind project in Jiangsu province.
The 300-megawatt H2 project has 50 4-MW turbines and 17 6-MW turbines. Forty-seven of the turbines are installed in shallow waters and the rest in deep water.
CNOOC Ltd also aims to build 5 gigawatts of onshore wind generation capacity by the end of 2025.
