China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation's largest oil and gas producer, announced Friday that its chairman Zhou Jiping stressed the acceleration of the development of unconventional petroleum resources in the Americas after visiting Costa Rica and Ecuador earlier this month.

During Zhou's visit, CNPC reached a number of agreements with Costa Rica and Ecuador. According to the agreements, the Chinese oil giant will set up a joint venture to upgrade and extend the Moin Refinery in Costa Rica, which will increase its annual processing capacity from 1.2 million tons to 3 million tons.

Simultaneously, CNPC will share in constructing the Pacific refinery located in Ecuador and actively participate in the country's upstream resources exploration efforts.

Zhou Jiping also pointed out that the Americas, especially Latin America, are rich in natural resources and have a good relationship with China.

"CNPC should engage in petroleum cooperation projects with Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica and Canada as the key points and make the Americas the largest overseas unconventional resource cooperation area," Zhou said.