CNPC has established comprehensive technological capabilities in the survey, design, construction and operation of large-scale petroleum and petrochemical engineering projects, as well as in the design and manufacturing of related large-scale specialized equipment.

These mainly include:

  Oil and gas field surface facilities, such as gathering stations and processing plants

  Oil and gas storage and transportation facilities, such as storage tanks and pipelines

  Refining and chemical facilities

  Pipe manufacturing  


Engineering Technologies for Combined Oil-Gas Pipelines

The combined oil-gas pipeline system of the Kenkijak Subsalt Oilfield in Kazakhstan began operations in July 2005. This represented another technological breakthrough in CNPC's development of combined oil-gas pipelines.

The pipeline starts at the Kenkijak Subsalt Oilfield and ends at the Zhanazhol Oil and Gas Processing Plant. The 44km long and 530mm diameter pipeline experiences an elevation difference of 70 meters and a working pressure of 4Mpa. The system was designed to transport 2 million metric tons of crude oil and 750 million cubic meters of gas annually. The pipeline network links 56 oil wells, 8 metering units, a pumping station and a receiving terminal.

The system brings oil and gas from the Kenkijak Subsalt Oilfield to the Zhanazhol Oil and Gas Processing Plant, simplifying surface processing at the oilfield. This not only significantly reduces the financial input and operational costs, but also facilitates production management at the processing plant. The system also minimizes the pollution of the surrounding environment as it eliminates the need for oilfield operations to burn-off associated gases and increases the recovery rate of light hydrocarbons.

X80 High-tensile Pipeline Steel

Working together with some domestic steel enterprises and scientific institutes, CNPC has succeeded in producing X80 high-tensile pipeline steel and both spiral- and longitudinal-welded steel pipes of the same tensile strength with a diameter of 1,219mm and wall thickness of 18.4mm. This uses 8% less steel than than required to produce X70 steel.

The steel is being used on a trial basis in a 7.7 km section of the Ji-Ning branch of the West-East Gas Pipeline. So far, the tensile and leak tests show that the steel meets all of our engineering quality benchmarks. The X80 Spiral Welded Steel Pipe has been put into mass production and it is the only type installed in the Second West-East Gas Pipeline.