BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- PetroChina Company Limited, a major oil producer in China, planned to raise 100 billion yuan (14.71 billion U.S. dollars) through debt financing in 2009, the company said in a statement late Tuesday to the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets.

    The financing plan was approved at the annual shareholders meeting held on Tuesday.

    The fund will support major strategic projects such as oil exploration and development in northwestern basins, oil refining business, natural gas pipeline construction between Central Asian countries and China as well as crude oil pipeline building between China and Russia, according to PetroChina.

    The company would also focus on overseas expansion this year, as falling oil prices on the international market have presented arare chance for going out, PetroChina president Zhou Jiping told Xinhua at the meeting.

    The oil producer would strengthen cooperation with both resources-rich countries such as Kazakhstan, Qatar and Venezuela and oil giants such as Exxonmobile, BP and Shell, Zhou said.

    With China's producer price index (PPI) declining and the domestic demand for energy expected to rise, PetroChina will lower costs to strengthen the development of major business, said PetroChina chairman Jiang Jiemin.

    According to Jiang, the company will cut 10 percent of the investment in projects already launched, but the total investment scale will be kept at the same level as that in 2008.

    PetroChina's capital expenditure in 2008 exceeded 232 billion yuan.

    The 100-billion yuan financing would not upset the company's balance sheet, said Zhou Jiping.