Gas find may hold eight month supply

State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) said two offshore areas it was exploring could hold enough natural gas to supply the island for eight months and enough oil for about 30 days.

The areas off the western town of Tunghsiao may hold reserves of 23 million barrels of oil and 7.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas, Liao Tsang-long (廖滄龍), a spokesman for the company said by phone yesterday.

Taiwan uses approximately 700,000 barrels of oil a day, he said.

"From the data we've got, it looks promising," Liao said.

The company will drill two exploration wells during the next two to three years in the areas, he said.

CPC, Taiwan is exploring for oil and gas to reduce dependence on imports and as onshore wells age. The nation relies on overseas supplies for almost all its crude oil needs and more than 90 percent of natural gas demand.

CPC discovered deposits in the waters off Kaohsiung that have an estimated 6 billion cubic meters of natural gas, the company said in January 2005.

Production is slated to start in 2010.

The state-run oil refiner and Beijing-based China National Offshore Oil Corp (中國海洋石油) are jointly searching for oil and gas in the Tainan Basin.

The companies plan to drill a second well after the first turned out to be dry, Liao said.

Taiwan produced 11,600 barrels of crude oil in December, down 58 percent from a year earlier, the Bureau of Energy said on its Web site.

The nation imported 4.35 million kiloliters.

Taiwan used 9.49 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the first 11 months of last year, according to the energy bureau.