China’s CNPC creates company for low-carbon initiatives

Chinese state-owned oil and gas producer CNPC has set up a firm targeting to expand its low-carbon business activities to support the country's peak emissions and carbon neutrality targets.

CNPC Kunlun Capital will be a joint venture of CNPC, its listed arm PetroChina and CNPC's capital firm with a respective 51pc, 29pc, 21pc shareholding, according to PetroChina.

The new firm will take the role of industry investment, focusing on low-carbon business and other strategic emerging innovations, with an estimated registered capital of 10bn yuan ($1.55bn).

CNPC's top executives had a focus meeting for new energy material business in late March, with an emphasis on natural gas and other renewable alternatives, energy saving, along with carbon capture, utilisation and storage.

The company should "fully take advantage from natural gas' low carbon" to push forward gas business, and utilise wind, solar and geothermal resources in company's upstream fields, further integrating them with gas-fired power and hydrogen development, CNPC said in a company statement for the meeting.

The natural gas sector is a key part of CNPC and PetroChina's efforts to achieve low-carbon development, targeting to raise their natural gas output to a 55pc share of the total production mix by 2025.

CNPC aims to achieve peak emissions by 2025 and net-zero emissions by 2050. Its state-owned counterparts CNOOC and Sinopec are also planning more low-carbon initiatives , as part of China's target for carbon emissions to peak before 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

CNPC is restructuring into four segments announced earlier this month comprising oil, gas and new energy; refining, sales and new materials; support and service; capital and financing. The oil, gas and new energy segment covers oil and gas upstream production, sales, oil and gas trading, along with new energy initiatives.

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