Chinese oil firm Cnooc today revealed plans to spend up to £9billion in 2018, 18% of which will be devoted to exploration.
Cnooc, which owns upstream oil firm Nexen, will drill 132 exploration wells and acquire 19,000 sq km of 3D seismic data.
Nexen’s near-term plans involve developing phase two of the North Sea Buzzards field.
The majority of the budget will go towards development, with five new projects expected to come on stream, in the US and China.
Chief executive Yuan Guangyu said: “In 2018, the company endeavors to strengthen innovation and technology-driven philosophy.
“Meanwhile, we will continue to pursue a sustainable and environmentally friendly development model while increasing oil and gas production and reserves, in order to deliver improved shareholder returns.”
Company’s net production target for 2018 is 470-480million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), 36% of which will come from oversea.
Net production for 2017 is expected to be about 469million boe.