ConocoPhillips: Eye on Asia-Pacific: Mulva targets Far East

by: Wire Reports, Tulsa World

6/12/2007 5:09 AM

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- ConocoPhillips expects to raise its Asia-Pacific investment by 30 percent to $1.4 billion this year, the company's top executive said Monday.

Houston-based ConocoPhillips expects to increase the 200,000 barrels of oil it produces each day in the region by another 75 percent by 2015, Chairman and CEO James Mulva told an Asia oil and gas conference here.

The company is involved in five offshore oil and gas fields in Vietnam, about 30 fields in Indonesia, a deepwater oil block in Malaysia, a huge project in China and a liquid natural gas business in Australia and East Timor, he said.

"Asia-Pacific is one of our largest sources of growth," Mulva said. "We're pursuing new opportunities, including exploration, to drive longer term growth. . . . We'd like to become even more active here, if we can gain access to the right areas."

Mulva said the region is expected to lead the global increase in demand, consuming one-third of the world's oil supply by 2030. Regional gas demand is expected to more than double, with annual growth of nearly 4 percent, he said.

The region holds less than 10 percent of the world's known oil and gas resources, equivalent to 300 billion barrels of oil, which is "still a huge amount of resources, with enormous monetary and strategic value," Mulva said.

"We find the region's deepwater potential particularly attractive," he said, noting that drilling and production technologies have opened new horizons such as offshore Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

At the same time, Mulva said there is great potential for natural gas and liquefied natural gas as regional gas markets grow and prices increase.

In an interview after the conference, Mulva said ConocoPhillips is interested in buying a stake in South Korea's Hyundai Oilbank Co.

The profit from turning each barrel of crude oil into fuels will stay "strong" in the next few years because demand is rising faster than supply, the CEO told Bloomberg News.

Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co., or IPIC, will sell half of its 70 percent stake in Hyundai Oilbank, South Korea's fourth-largest oil refiner, in a tender, South Korea's Seoul Economic Daily reported on May 14, citing IPIC's managing director Mohammed al-Khaily.

"We have indicated an interest. Abu Dhabi will make the decision," Mulva said. "It will be a competitive process."