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China’s CNPC reports CCUS ‘breakthrough’ at Xinjiang
14/1/2026
News
Xinjiang Oilfield, a major oil production base in north-western China, stored over 1mn tonnes of CO2 in 2025, marking what parent company China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has called a ‘breakthrough’ in the country’s large-scale application of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) technologies.
Xinjiang Oilfield says it has been using CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) at fields in the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, in recent years to sustain ‘high oil production with low-carbon approaches’. Some 126,000 tonnes of CO2 were stored in 2022, rising to 1mn tonnes in 2025, with cumulative injections exceeding 2mn tonnes, according to Shi Daohan, Executive Director and Party Chief of Xinjiang Oilfield. Shi says 1mn tonnes of CO2 injected into the oil field is equivalent to planting nearly nine million trees in terms of carbon storage.
CCUS technologies like CO2 EOR are yielding a ‘win-win outcome’ of emissions reduction and oil production growth, helping with China’s dual carbon goals of peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, as well enhancing the country’s energy security, adds Ding Chao, Head of Xinjiang Oilfield’s development division.
Xinjiang Oilfield says analysis suggests that its oil fields which are suitable for CO2 EOR, together with saline aquifers in the production area that are capable of storing carbon, have a potential CO2 storage capacity of around 2bn tonnes. ‘This offers favourable conditions for developing a massive CCUS industrial cluster,’ it notes.
The company adds that it plans to develop a 10mn-tonne CCUS capacity and promote integrated power projects combining new energy, coal-fired power and CCUS to support the green transformation of China’s energy sector during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030).
According to the Energy Institute’s 2025 Statistical Review of World Energy, China produced 4.3mn b/d of oil in 2025. For comparison, Brazil produced 3.5mn b/d, the United Arab Emirates 4mn, Iraq 4.4mn and Iran 5.1mn. The three largest oil producers globally in 2024 were the US (20.1mn b/d), Saudi Arabia (10.9mn) and Russia (10.8mn).
