China’s three state oil and gas companies plan to increase their spending on oil and gas by 20 percent this year, bringing the total to some US$74.4 billion (500 billion yuan) for the first time in five years. Nikkei Asian Review reports PetroChina, CNOOC, and Sinopec sourced foreign oil to satisfy as much as 70 percent of their needs as of 2018, with natural gas dependency on imports at 45 percent. Heeding a call from Beijing to boost the country’s energy security amid ongoing tensions with the United States, the three are now seeking to increase their production both at home and abroad. PetroChina last month said it will increase its spending by 17.4 percent this fiscal year, which the company can accommodate comfortably after it reported a 130-percent rise in net profits for financial 2018. Most of this will go into oil and gas production, at 80 percent, […]