China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the country's largest oil producer, is mulling over increasing its portfolio in the urban gas distribution sector.

CNPC, also the country's leading company in natural gas production and transportation, said it would use its dominance role in domestic gas production and supply upstream business to further develop its gas retail operation, according to Saturday's China Daily.

CNPC, the parent company of PetroChina, started its urban gas distribution business in 2000 and set up its first professional gas distribution subsidiary in 2004 in the national capital Beijing.

The Beijing-based oil and gas giant has made an accumulative investment of 740 million yuan (US$107.9 million) into gas retail projects in 46 cities of 14 provinces nationwide.

The company currently supplies about three quarters of the country's total natural gas consumption.

CNPC's natural gas sales were 45.3 billion cubic meters in 2007, an increase of 21.3 percent compared to a year earlier.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2008)