The Wall Street Journal
JULY 29, 2010
By ALEX PEVZNER
TAIPEI—Taiwan government-owned refiner CPC Corp. said Thursday it has made a “large” natural gas discovery at well No. 145 in Miaoli, northwestern Taiwan, estimating the well to be able to produce over 1 billion cubic meters of gas over 20 years, starting from the end of 2011.
Onshore oil and gas discoveries are quite rare in Taiwan, as most sources are gradually depleting, and CPC has focused most of its exploration efforts offshore. The discovery at the over 100-year-old Miaoli well is the first onshore discovery in Taiwan since 2004, when gas was discovered in Tainan county, said a CPC public relations official, who declined to be named.
Taiwan relies on imports to meet practically all of its energy needs, and CPC has recently stepped up its efforts in upstream exploration and gas.
CPC, which is exploring for oil and gas in Australia, the U.S., Chad, Libya and Belize and produces oil in Ecuador and Indonesia, is cooperating in oil and gas with China’s three oil majors—China National Petroleum Corp., Cnooc Ltd. and China Petrochemical Corp.—both in the Taiwan Strait and globally.
After drilling to a depth of 3,800 meters since May of this year, workers discovered new deposits of oil and gas at the No. 145 Chuhuangkeng well, CPC said in the statement. The company plans to drill two more wells in the area to boost output.    more …
