Exploration and production
Taiwan's indigenous energy resources are very small and it has to depend on imports for almost all of its fossil fuel
requirements. CPC has of late therefore focused on improving its performance in new energy developments – expanding
its upstream operations, ramping-up exploration and production abroad – with the aim of stabilizing Taiwan’s supplies of
oil and natural gas and easing the impact of oil price shocks on the public. This has taken place in conjunction with the
government's policy of strengthening Taiwan’s energy security mechanisms and promoting international cooperation in
energy matters.
In order to improve its overall strategic positioning and in line with a philosophy of ‘active expansion, focused
development’, CPC has adopted exploration strategies aimed at gradually increasing its ratio of self-owned and controlled
energy sources within the whole range. The means by which that is to achieved can be summarized as: expanding the
development of sources overseas while exacting the maximum from indigenous resources; boosting exploration through
M&A and partnering for progress; and training talent to achieve renewable success.
Focused development of indigenous resources
Onshore exploration
In 2014, CPC completed 3D seismic surveys of nearly 48 sq. km and geological surveys covering 73 sq. km and repaired
four wells. There are currently 37 wells producing oil and gas in the Tiezhenshan, Qingcaohu, Jinshui, Chuhuangkeng, and
Guantian fields and last year they yielded 387 million cubic meters of natural gas and 9,000 kiloliters of condensate.
Offshore development
CPC decided to suspend development of the F Structure oil and gas field offshore Kaohsiung – a decision approved by
the Executive Yuan on January 13, 2014 – when the outlook for oil and gas prices indicated that the projected return on
investment would fall short of expectations.
In order to both acquire deep-water exploration technology and spread the risk, CPC is cooperating with Husky Energy of
Canada in exploration of the deep-water blocks in the Tainan Basin for which two-dimensional seismic survey data covering
3,170 square kilometers has been obtained. Interpretation of the survey data and assessment of the potential reserves of
oil and gas is currently underway.
Increased attention on overseas E&P projects
Exploring the Taiwan Strait and East/South China Sea
Interpretation of 3D survey data and assessment of potential oil and gas reserves is currently underway for an area of 1,399
square kilometers in the Taichao contract area. The Taiyang oil contract was approved by the Board on December 12, 2014.
Additionally and in line with government policy, CPC has joined forces
with National Taiwan University and National Cheng Kung University
to serve as joint contractors to the Bureau of Mines, MOEA for the
assessment of potential oil and natural gas reserves in the East China
Sea and South China Sea.
Overseas exploration and development
As of end-2014, CPC was engaged with international oil companies
in the joint exploration of 22 fields in 8 countries and was involved in
the operation of 1,059 producing wells; the drilling of 108 wells and
repair of a further 103 holes was completed during the year. In the
same period, CPC obtained just over 6 million barrels of crude oil and
318 million m3 of natural gas as its share of the output of 11 producing
fields in Ecuador, Indonesia, Niger and the USA. This output consisted
of both conventional oil and unconventional oil and gas – such as heavy
fuel oil, coal bed gas and tight gas – and employed ultra-low pressure
yield increase methods and other yield enhancement technologies to
obtain those large volumes of high-quality hydrocarbons.
Increasing involvement in overseas exploration
The likely successive exhaustion of existing domestic terrestrial oil
and gas fields over the next ten years calls for action to avoid a crisis.
We are therefore continuing our efforts with both domestic and
