OREANDA-NEWS.  September 18, 2012. China’s Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO), though the timing for the IPO has not yet been defined.

The company, which has plans for overseas oil and gas exploration and domestic shale gas development, currently owns onshore oil blocks in 11 provinces and has a target to build 1,000 retail fuel stations by 2015.

It is in initial talks with Thailand, Madagascar, the Central African Republic and Kyrgyzstan for joint exploration, Wang Xiangzeng, the company’s chief geologist, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Yanchang is a major employer in the northwest Shaanxi province, with 109,000 workers, and the largest taxpayer, accounting for 16% of the local government’s revenue last year. It is 100% owned by the provincial government.

One of only four companies authorized to explore onshore for oil and gas in China, Yanchang is targeting 12.4 million metric tons, or about 250,000 barrels a day, of crude output this year.

The company will begin commercial production of natural gas next year, drawing from its 105.2 billion cubic meters of recoverable reserves. In the coming years, it plans to move away from the upstream sector and focus more on petrochemical projects.

Despite competing with China’s oil majors, it has forged partnerships with them—a joint venture with China National Petroleum Corp. for oil and gas exploration and a tie-up with China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec Group, to sell refined oil products.

It also has several partnerships with foreign companies, such as a joint venture with U.S. engineering firm KBR Inc. to sell downstream technology and a pact with Royal Dutch Shell PLC to build 100 retail fuel stations in Shaanxi.