On January 25, CNOOC 600938SH, **abbreviation: CNOOC) announced its 2024 business strategy and development plan in Hong Kong. Mr. Zhou Xinhuai, CEO and President of the company, and Ms. Wang Xin, Chief Financial Officer, attended the press conference and answered many questions from investors, analysts and leaders. At the meeting, the reporter asked questions about the company's market value management, and Mr. Zhou Xinhuai, CEO and president of the company, said that the SASAC has recently put forward new requirements for the market value management assessment of central enterprises, and the company will continue to pay attention to the performance of the capital market, actively study the relevant influencing factors of market value management, and comprehensively use a variety of scientific and compliant value management methods to more effectively realize the company's market value management. It is reported that since its listing on the Hong Kong stock market, CNOOC Limited has released its annual business outlook for 23 consecutive years, timely and transparently releasing the company's confidence in the development of the company's future strategic goals to the market and promoting the transmission of intrinsic value. This behavior is highly consistent with the current CSRC's requirement that "listed companies should strengthen effective communication with investors", and has been highly concerned and widely recognized by the capital market, becoming an excellent example of high-quality communication among listed companies. In the context of the steady growth of global oil and gas demand, "increasing reserves and production" is still the "main task" of CNOOC's development this year. In 2024, the company's total capital expenditure budget is RMB125 billion to RMB135 billion, and the net production target is 700 to 720 million barrels of oil equivalent. While developing steadily, CNOOC Limited continues the tradition of "high dividends" and actively shares the fruits of development with shareholders. From 2022 to 2024, the company's annual dividend payout ratio will not be less than 40%, and the absolute value of dividends is expected to be no less than 0HK$70 shares (tax included). In the context of weak economic growth expectations and the intensification of the "asset shortage" phenomenon in the capital market, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets have performed weakly recently, while CNOOC, as a scarce high-growth and high-dividend A-share market, has a prominent investment cost performance. Since December 2023, the company's stock price has fluctuated at a high level after moving sharply. The performance is much better than the Shanghai Composite Index and international oil prices. As of today**, CNOOC has a market capitalization of 106 trillion yuan, a new high since the listing of A-shares. Significantly increase production target, the company's high growth continues "Increasing reserves and production" continues to be the key word in the oil and gas industry. From the perspective of energy, increasing oil and gas reserves and production can improve the country's energy guarantee capacity; From an economic point of view, the increase in oil and gas reserves and production will drive the continuous growth of investment demand and consumption demand. In 2023, CNOOC Limited once again exceeded its operating target, and is expected to achieve net oil and gas production of about 675 million barrels of oil equivalent, a record high for five consecutive years. From the perspective of business objectives in the next three years, CNOOC Limited has significantly increased its annual production target this time, highlighting the company's high growth in the context of oil price fluctuations. The company's net production target for 2024 is 700-720 million barrels of oil equivalent, an increase of 10-20 million barrels of oil equivalent from the 2024 net production target announced last year, and an increase of 7 percent from the 2023 oil and gas production target69%β9.09%γIn 2025 and 2026, the company's net production is expected to reach 780-800 million barrels of oil equivalent and 810-830 million barrels of oil equivalent, respectively, with an average annual growth rate of approximately 55 million barrels of oil equivalent. In 2023, China's marine production will account for about 70% of the country's largest increase, and offshore oil will become a key increase in China's oil and gas production. Among them, the Bohai Oilfield, the largest production base in China, has a cumulative oil and gas equivalent output of more than 36.8 million tons, a first-class output of more than 34 million tons, and a natural gas output of more than 3.5 billion cubic meters, reaching the highest level in history, providing strong support for ensuring national energy security. Industry insiders believe that CNOOC's current oil and gas resources are all high-quality and high-return on investment projects around the world, which will bring good profits to the company. With the continuous growth of production at home and abroad, under the premise that oil prices are expected to remain high in 2024, the company's profits will continue to increase, and the company's high dividend certainty will bring considerable benefits to investors. Rational planning of capital expenditures and increased exploration and development efforts The strong production growth was driven by strong project continuity and higher intensity of capital expenditures. In 2024, the total budget of CNOOC's capital support will reach 125 billion to 135 billion yuan, which is basically the same as that in 2023, helping to increase both reserves and production. Specifically, exploration, development, and production capitalization are expected to account for about 1% and 19% of the total capex budget, respectively. The company said that it will focus on investment efficiency, adhere to scientific and reasonable planning of capital expenditure, and ensure the sustainable development of oil and gas business. Among them, exploration is the "leader" of the oil industry chain. CNOOC Limited has always maintained a high level of exploration workload and insisted on looking for medium and large oil and gas fields. Since 2019, CNOOC Limited has successfully discovered 7 offshore 100-million-ton oil fields and 2 100-billion-cubic meters onshore unconventional gas fields. In 2023, the company will make another 100-million-ton oil and gas exploration discovery in the Bohai Sea and the South China Sea, and achieve 100-million-ton new discoveries for five consecutive years, with extremely high exploration efficiency, laying a resource foundation for the company's sustainable development. The company said that in 2024, it will continue to focus on finding large and medium-sized oil and gas fields, adhering to the exploration and deployment of stabilizing oil and gas and tilting towards gas, stabilizing the Bohai Sea, accelerating the South China Sea, expanding the East China Sea, exploring the Yellow Sea, and strengthening overseas, while promoting the strategy of unconventional oil and gas exploration, continuing to consolidate the resource base of increasing reserves and production, and promoting medium and long-term sustainable development with high-quality exploration. On the other hand, CNOOC Limited has accelerated production capacity construction and project approval, and high-quality projects at home and abroad, such as Lufeng Oilfield Group Phase II, Brazil's Mero2 Project, and Guyana's Payara, have been put into production one after another, providing support for subsequent oil and gas production growth. It is reported that the MERO oilfield is the third largest oilfield in Brazil, and the MERO2 project is the second project put into production in the oilfield, with a production capacity of 180,000 barrels per day; The second phase of the Lufeng Oilfield Group development project is located in the eastern part of the South China Sea, and is expected to achieve about 2peak production of 260,000 barrels per day; The Payara project is located in the Stabroek block in Guyana and is expected to peak production at 220,000 barrels per day in 2024. Guoxin** research report pointed out that the above projects are high-quality production capacity, with rich oil and gas reserves, low exploitation costs, and strong cost advantages. In the future, with the continuous acceleration of production release, the strong profitability of the oilfield will increase the company's profit level. In 2024, CNOOC Limited expects a number of high-quality new projects to commence, including China's Suizhong 36-1 Luda 5-2 oilfield secondary adjustment and development project, Bozhong 19-2 oilfield development project, Shenhai No. 1 Phase II development project, Huizhou 26-6 oilfield development project and Shenfu deep coalbed methane exploration and development demonstration project, as well as the overseas MER3 project in Brazil, which will strongly support oil and gas production growth.
In addition, the continuous emergence of scientific and technological innovation achievements has provided strong support for the exploration and development of oil and gas resources, helping oil and gas production to "reduce costs and increase efficiency". In 2023, the company made important breakthroughs in a number of key technologies for exploration and development, providing a scientific and technological foundation for oil and gas exploration and development, and stable production and production increase in producing oilfields. At the same time, the company has steadily promoted the construction of intelligent oil and gas fields, established an intelligent oilfield technology system, refined and refined digital transformation scenarios, and accelerated the implementation of unmanned and less manpower construction of offshore platforms and the transformation of typhoon mode, which has greatly improved the efficiency and safety of the oil and gas industry and injected new vitality into oil and gas production. Focusing on green and low-carbon transformation to help achieve the "dual carbon" goal In the company's business strategy in 2024, CNOOC Limited will "steadily promote the integration of new energy and oil and gas production" as one of its development priorities, and focus on the green and low-carbon transformation of traditional energy enterprises. According to the plan, the company will continue to increase the level of green power substitution, and is expected to consume more than 700 million kWh of green electricity in 2024. On the one hand, natural gas is a high-quality energy source with high calorific value, stable combustion, clean and environmentally friendly, and its demand has maintained rapid growth. CNOOC Limited adheres to the principle of stabilizing oil and increasing gas, continuously increasing natural gas exploration efforts and improving natural gas supply capacity. The company said that in 2024, it will strengthen the deployment of natural gas exploration and solidly promote the construction of three trillion atmospheric areas, including the exploration project of the trillion atmospheric area in the South China Sea, the exploration project of the trillion atmospheric area in the Bohai Sea and the storage increase project of the trillion atmospheric area on land. On the other hand, CNOOC Limited actively explores the integrated development of oil and gas development and new energy. Among them, the successful grid connection of China's first deep-sea floating wind power platform "CNOOC Guanlan" is a model for the integrated development of offshore oil and gas and new energy, and also marks a key step for offshore oil and gas development to enter the "green power era". The company said that it will give full play to the advantages of the ocean, focus on the development of strategic emerging industries and technologies such as deep-sea floating wind power, and actively build a multi-energy complementary comprehensive energy system. In addition, the company is actively exploring and promoting the industrialization of CCS CCUS, carrying out the evaluation of the potential of CCS CCUS in the whole sea area of China, building a CCUS demonstration center in northern China with the Bozhong 19-6 gas field as the center, relying on the construction of the trillion-dollar atmospheric area in the South China Sea to build a CCUS demonstration center in southern China, and continuing to follow up the research on the CCS CCUS cluster demonstration project in the Daya Bay area.
Figure: Phase I Development Project of Bozhong 19-6 Condensate Gas Field Commenced Production] The proposal of the "dual carbon" goal puts forward more urgent requirements for the green and low-carbon transformation of the traditional energy industry, and also provides a valuable opportunity for CNOOC to break through the wall and gather new momentum for industrial development. CNOOC Limited deeply implements the green and low-carbon development strategy, actively fulfills its social responsibility for green and low-carbon development, and spares no effort to "go green". Looking back on 2023, CNOOC's scale strength, scientific and technological power, core competitiveness and anti-risk ability have been significantly enhanced, injecting strong impetus into the high-quality development of listed companies. Looking ahead to 2024, Mr. Zhou Xinhuai, Chief Executive Officer and President of the Company, said: "CNOOC Limited will continue to aim high and be down-to-earth, solidly promote the three major projects of increasing reserves and production, technological innovation and green development, and implement the action of 'improving quality and efficiency', so as to consolidate the company's development foundation and continuously improve its value creation capabilities. β