China’s CNPC eyes a solar future powered by AI
China National Petroleum Corporation, CNPC, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, is working towards an integrated development, a pragmatic blend of fossil fuels and renewables underpinned by digital and AI technologies, Chairman Dai Houliang said on the first day of ADIPEC.
During the panel discussion, Charting the future of global energy, Houliang started the talk on a philosophical note and said, “All things that grow rely on the sun… So too will the future of energy.” He recalled that “just 10 or 20 years ago, photovoltaic energy cost $15 to $20 per watt,” but technological advances have driven that down to below $1, while efficiency has leapt to 50%.
Such progress, he said, supports China’s long-term pursuit of controllable nuclear fusion, a concept sometimes called the “artificial sun”. “It is the ultimate goal,” Dai said, hinting that fusion research remains a strategic frontier for CNPC.
“AI has reduced interpretation time by 80% and increased efficiency tenfold. It is transforming how we work.”
Despite the solar optimism, Dai was clear that fossil fuels would not vanish overnight. “We must promote the integrated development of fossil fuels and renewable energies,” he said. “That is a viable and realistic path forward.”
Balancing growth and green goals
China’s domestic power generation has reached 10 trillion kilowatt-hours, Dai noted, with 53% coming from renewables, a scale that has been unmatched globally. CNPC’s role, he said, is to lead that national transformation by embedding green and low-carbon principles into its corporate DNA.
“By 2035, we aim for oil, gas and new energies to each account for one-third of our portfolio,” he said. “By 2050, new energies will represent half. At that point, our vision of a green CNPC will become reality.”
To achieve this, CNPC is betting heavily on natural gas, geothermal, wind, and solar, adopting what Dai described as a strategy of “clean substitution, strategic replacement, and redevelopment.” The company’s natural gas output already represents over 50% of China’s total, a figure Dai claimed places CNPC ahead of most international peers.
AI and the digital oilfield
On CNPC’s deployment of artificial intelligence, Dai said, “We are making CNPC a digital and smart enterprise. Our large AI model for the energy sector is already leading in China, and even lobally.”
The results, he claimed, are transformative. “In exploration and geophysical interpretation, efficiency has increased tenfold. AI has reduced interpretation time by 80%,” Dai said. Similar advances have been made in refining, where predictive analytics have helped prevent unplanned shutdowns in ethylene units.
The company is also experimenting with robotic fuel attendants across its 20,000 service stations. But Dai acknowledged the social dimension of such automation and said the company is studying how to address the employment challenges that AI brings.
Energy diplomacy and Middle East partnerships
CNPC’s ambitions extend well beyond China’s borders. The company operates in 33 countries and trades more than 500 million tonnes of energy products annually. In the UAE alone, CNPC’s equity production exceeds 10 million tonnes.
“Our collaboration is not limited to the UAE,” he said. “We have major natural gas projects in Mozambique and Iraq, where CNPC’s technologies have reduced costs and improved efficiency. These are examples of mutually beneficial partnerships that extend across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.”
