China announces massive oil and gas discovery

The oilfield in the Bohai Sea contains 100 million tons of reserves, according to the China National Offshore Oil Corporation

Chinese state-owned oil and gas corporation CNOOC has announced the discovery of a major oilfield with light crude reserves of 100 million tons in the Bohai Sea, which stretches along the country’s northern coastline.

According to a statement from the company on Wednesday, the Bozhong 26-6 oilfield lies in the south of the Bohai Sea, with an average water depth of 22 meters. The discovery well was drilled and completed at a depth of 4,480 meters, which encountered a total of 321.3 meters of oil pay zones. The well was tested to produce an average of approximately 2,040 barrels of crude oil and 11.45 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, the report said.

“Bozhong 26-6 oilfield is the third oilfield discovery with [a] hundred million tons of reserves in [the] southern Bohai Sea after Kenli 6-1 and Kenli 10-2,” CNOOC’s deputy chief exploration engineer, Xu Changgui, stated.

The company’s chief executive, Zhou Xinhuai, added that CNOOC “will keep looking for mid-to-large sized oil and gas fields and continue the momentum in offshore oil and gas development...” 

According to industry experts, natural gas and oil discoveries in the Bohai Sea will boost CNOOC’s annual output to above 80 million tons of oil equivalent by 2025.

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CNOOC is China’s third-largest national oil company after CNPC and Sinopec. Founded in 1982 and headquartered in Beijing, CNOOC deals in the production, refining, and marketing of oil and natural gas from China’s offshore zones.

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