The first shipment of oil produced from
the Oryx field in Chad operated by CPC Corp. Taiwan arrived in the southern
port city of Kaohsiung Nov. 30, marking a milestone in the state-owned
company’s overseas operations.
At a ceremony celebrating the occasion, CPC
Chairman Jerry Ou said the batch of 950,000 barrels is the first delivered from
an oil field independently prospected and developed by the company in its
74-year history.
“CPC is eager to build on the success by
seeking other exploration opportunities in the future,” he added.
According to the Kaohsiung-headquartered
company, surveys in Chad began in January 2006 under an agreement signed with
the central African country’s government. After discovering oil reserves in
2010 and following a decade of seismic testing, drilling and other development
work, CPC obtained permission to operate the Oryx field on a 25-year lease.
Total reserves at the site are estimated at 34 million barrels, with daily
production of 5,800 barrels.
CPC is also committed to giving back to local
communities in Chad through charitable work conducted in collaboration with
nongovernmental organizations in Taiwan, the company said. CPC said it
had begun trial production at its Oryx concession in February. It exported a
first cargo in October, with 950,000 barrels of crude leaving Cameroon’s Kribi
terminal. The oil arrived in Taiwan at the end of November,
Chad is a West African landlocked country that went into bilateral pipelines construction agreement with Cameroon and this is to enable the country transport its crude oil production via Cameroon’s Kribi terminal to international crude oil market.
