A newly formed oil service joint venture between a private Chinese firm and U.S. oil service giant Halliburton Co plans to focus on tapping tight oil and gas reserves in China’s remote western region of Xinjiang.<\/p>\n
BEIJING, July 10 Thu Jul 10, 2014 3:00am EDT<\/p>\n
(Reuters) – A newly formed oil service joint venture between a private Chinese firm and U.S. oil service giant Halliburton Co plans to focus on tapping tight oil and gas reserves in China’s remote western region of Xinjiang.<\/p>\n
China is stepping up development of more difficult-to-extract resources including tight oil and shale gas, leading more local firms to seek alliances with global oilfield service companies with high-end drilling technology and experience.<\/p>\n
The latest venture between Halliburton and China’s SPT Energy, known as Xinjiang HTDT, joins similar tie-ups between U.S.-listed Weatherford and China’s Sinopec Group and U.S. fracking giant FTS International with Sinopec.<\/p>\n
SPT has 20 years experience operating in Xinjiang while Halliburton would contribute its expertise in enhancing oil recovery using fracturing technology,” Sun Xiaogang, SPT’s chief financial officer, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
“Among the most geographically complicated regions in China, Xinjiang is rich in tight oil and tight gas resources,” he said, adding that the model could be used in other regions.<\/p>\n
SPT will hold 51 percent and Halliburton 49 percent of the new entity, which will have registered capital of $34 million and commit to a total investment of $100 million, Sun said.<\/p>\n