On 22 March, the official website of the National Energy Administration released the Circular on Action Plan for Accelerating the Integration of Oil and Gas Exploration and Development with New Energy Sources (2023-2025). The circular proposes to focus on promoting the centralised development of wind power and photovoltaic power generation in oil fields such as Daqing, Changqing, Shengli, Tarim, Xinjiang and North China to support the clean use of energy in oil and gas exploration and development, accelerate the substitution of fuel oil and gas, improve oil and gas recovery rates and significantly increase the supply of oil and gas commodities.

Main objectives

By 2025, vigorously promote the integrated development of oil and gas exploration and development and new energy, and actively expand the scale of development and utilization of green power by oil and gas enterprises, with the following main development objectives: - Steady growth in oil and gas supply. Promote the efficient development and use of new energy through oil and gas, meet the demand for new electricity from oil and gas fields to increase the electrification rate, replace oil and gas for own use in exploration and development, and increase the supply of natural gas commodities by about 4.5 billion cubic metres in cumulative clean substitution. Through measures such as increased pressure extraction, the cumulative increase in natural gas production is approximately 3 billion cubic metres. Through low-cost green power to support oxygen reduction air drive, carbon dioxide drive, thick oil hot recovery electric heating assistance and other three oil recovery methods cumulatively increased the production of more than 2 million tons of crude oil. --Green development has been effective. We insisted on development in conservation, conservation in development and environmental protection, accelerated the development and utilization of geothermal, wind and solar resources, innovated core technologies and working models for dynamic matching of energy supply and demand, actively promoted an environmentally friendly, energy-saving and emission-reducing, multi-energy integrated oil and gas production system, and strived to build "low-carbon" and "zero-carbon" oil and gas fields. Zero Carbon" oil and gas fields. --The transformation of the industry was significantly accelerated. Vigorously promote the development of new energy industries by oil and gas enterprises, and continue to promote the transformation and upgrading of energy production and supply structures. Actively promote onshore oil and gas exploration and development since the consumption of wind power and photovoltaic power generation, centralised and distributed development of scenic power generation. Coordinate the promotion of offshore wind power and oil and gas exploration and development, the formation of offshore wind power and oil and gas fields regional power system complementary power supply model, and gradually achieve industrial integration and development. Optimise the development model by adhering to ecological priorities, local conditions and diversified integrated development, initially based on local consumption, vigorously promote wind power and photovoltaic power generation in onshore oil and gas mining areas and surrounding areas, co-ordinate the exploration and development of offshore wind power and oil and gas, speed up the development and use of new energy and storage capacity in the upstream of oil and gas, and actively promote the demonstration construction of green oil and gas fields.

(1) Coordinate and promote onshore oil and gas exploration and development and scenic power generation. Make full use of the advantages of better endowment of wind and solar energy resources in onshore oil and gas fields, superior construction conditions and conditions for sustainable large-scale development, and focus on improving the local consumption capacity of new energy. Focus on promoting the centralised development of wind power and photovoltaic power generation in oilfields such as Daqing, Changqing, Shengli, Tarim, Xinjiang and North China to support the clean use of energy in oil and gas exploration and development, accelerate the substitution of fuel oil and gas, improve oil and gas recovery rates and significantly increase the supply of oil and gas commodities. In oil and gas mining areas and surrounding areas, actively promote the distributed development of wind power and photovoltaic power generation in oil fields, focusing on promoting the application of low wind speed wind power technology, making reasonable use of resources such as barren hills and coastal beaches, and actively promoting the development of wind power in close proximity to local areas. In Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu and other areas rich in oil and gas and solar energy resources, build demonstration projects for the simultaneous development and comprehensive use of oil and gas and solar energy, making full use of solar energy concentrating heat collection and storage technology to achieve clean heat supply for the oil and gas production process and help low-carbon oil and gas development.

(2) Coordinate and promote offshore oil and gas exploration and development with offshore wind power construction. Through offshore wind power development to provide green power for oil and gas platforms, replace decentralized gas or fuel oil power generation, improve energy use efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and form a complementary power supply model for offshore wind power and the regional power system of oil and gas fields. Considering that the development of offshore oil and gas fields and subsequent rolling production involves the planning and layout of aviation, transportation and pipeline construction, the construction of new energy sources in the surrounding areas is prioritised by oil and gas development enterprises to co-ordinate and promote implementation, and gradually realise the integrated development of offshore wind power and the marine oil and gas industry. Fully rely on shore power to ensure the integrated development of oil and gas industry and offshore wind power. In the absence of shore power, promote offshore wind power for the platform alone network direct power supply, the implementation of green power part of the replacement; in the presence of shore power, the grid as a peaking, promote a high proportion of offshore wind power for the oil and gas platform power supply, and gradually achieve green power all replacement; active and orderly development of floating wind power, for deep-sea oil and gas platforms to deliver green power.

(3) Accelerate the enhancement of new energy storage and consumption capacity in the upstream of oil and gas. Promote the large-scale application of new types of energy storage in the upstream of oil and gas. Play a multi-functional role in peak and frequency regulation, emergency backup, capacity support, etc., promote the application of energy storage in multiple scenarios on the power supply side and the user side of oil and gas exploration and development, and orderly promote the synergistic development of energy storage and new energy. On land, rationalize the layout of natural gas peaking power stations in areas rich in scenery resources to enhance system regulation capacity. Offshore to create a comprehensive energy model based on the integrated development of wind power and natural gas power generation to provide stable and reliable green power for offshore platforms.

(4) Actively promote the demonstration construction of green oil and gas fields. In oil and gas fields that are rich in new energy and where innovations in institutional mechanisms have been piloted, a number of demonstration projects for the construction of low-carbon or zero-carbon oil and gas fields will be built. Promote innovation in the integration of oil and gas exploration and development with new energy technologies, application methods and institutional mechanisms, further reduce natural gas self-use, expand the scale of distributed energy access and application, innovate new energy development and utilization cooperation models for the whole industry chain, complete the construction of low-carbon oil fields and demonstrate leadership, and strongly support the clean and low-carbon transformation of the oil and gas industry.