CNPC to invest in five major projects

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) plans to invest in five major projects including pipelines of crude oil and natural gas and refining and chemical facilities. The country’s largest integrated oil and gas company expects the investments to fetch long-term returns, CNPC said in a statement on its Web site, although the company asked its units to reduce investment by 10% in 2009 due to the global financial crisis. The statement said CNPC plans to build a crude oil pipeline network between 2009 and 2020, but did not elaborate on the natural gas pipeline or the refining and chemical projects. (December 22, 2008)