China National Offshore Oil Company Limited (CNOOC Ltd.) announced Tuesday that the company will increase its capital expenditure by 19 percent year on year to 6.76 billion U.S. dollars in 2009 to boost output and reserves growth.

In a circular released on its website about the company's business strategy and development plan for year 2009, CNOOC Ltd. said 4.38 billion U.S. dollars of the total capital expenditure is budgeted for development, 1.11 billion U.S. dollar for exploration and 1.12 billion U.S. dollars for production.

The company's net production is estimated to hit 225 million to 231 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in 2009, compared with the estimated net production of 194 million to 196 million BOE for 2008, according to the circular.

Although oil prices declined in the second half of 2008, CNOOC Ltd. has kept its business at stable pace, said Fu Chengyu, Chairman and CEO of the company.

CNOOC Ltd's exploration activities in 2009 will focus on offshore China. Ten new projects of CNOOC Ltd. are expected to come on stream in 2009, eight of which are in offshore China, with the other two, OML130 in Nigeria and Tangguh liquefied national gas (LNG) project in Indonesia overseas.

The company expects to achieve a reserve replacement ratio of over 100 percent in 2009, according to the circular.

CNOOC Ltd. is the Hong Kong-listed company of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China's largest offshore oil and gas producer.

(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2009)