30 March 2012, Sweetcrude, HOUSTON – State-owned Chinese oil company, PetroChina, has announced that it pumped 2.4 million barrels of oil per day last year – overtaking Exxon Mobil’s 2.3 million bpd to be the world’s largest publicly traded producer of oil.
The 13-year-old company achieved this feat by squeezing out more from China’s aging oil fields, as well as outspending Western companies in acquiring more petroleum reserves in countries like Canada, Iraq and Qatar.
PetroChina’s oil output also managed to increase by 3.3 percent in 2011, as compared to Exxon Mobil whose production fell 5 percent.
“We must push ahead,” said PetroChina’s chairman, Jiang Jiemin, during a conference in January.
“Major development indicators of the existing oilfields continued to improve… which further strengthened the basis for the stable production of existing oilfields,” added the company in a statement on Thursday.
PetroChina was formed with the distinct purpose of securing more oil for the nation’s growing economy. The Chinese government owns 86 percent of the company and the nation uses nearly every drop of oil PetroChina pumps.
According to Bloomberg, PetroChina’s oil production could double between 2010 and 2035.
