Business

CNOOC makes 100 mn tonne oilfield discovery

 
BEIJING: Chinese state-owned oil and gas giant CNOOC Ltd has discovered a new reserve in the South China Sea containing over 100 million tonnes of oil equivalent proved in-place, the company said in a statement on Friday.

The reserve is located at CNOOC's deepwater Kaiping South oilfield in the Pearl River Delta near Guangdong province, and contains light crude, the statement said. CNOOC has invested heavily in developing China's offshore oil and gas reserves as part of a broader push to offset declining output from aging onshore fields.

The company lifted its 2024 production target by about 8 per cent to a record 700 million to 720 million barrels of oil equivalent. Domestic production, much of this offshore reserves in eastern China's Bohai Sea and the South China Sea.

The discovery is said to be China’s first deep-water and deep-play oilfield with proved in-place volume exceeding 100 million tonnes (mt) of oil equivalent.

During testing, the well produced an average of approximately 7,680 barrels of crude oil and 0.52 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

The proven in-place volume of the Kaiping South Oilfield has now reached 102mt of oil equivalent through continued exploration. CNOOC CEO and president Zhou Xinhuai said: “In recent years, CNOOC has achieved remarkable breakthroughs in oil and gas exploration in the eastern South China Sea, building a new growth pole for offshore oil and gas production.

“The company remains committed to oil and gas resources exploration and development in the South China Sea, thereby continuously enhancing its energy supply capacity.”

Last month, CNOOC commenced production at the Suizhong 36-1/Luda 5-2 oilfield project in the Bohai Sea. For 2024, CNOOC has set a production target of 700–720mboe, with 69% coming from China and the remainder from overseas operations.

The company has budgeted $17.63billion–19.07billion for capital expenditure in 2024, with allocations of 16% per cent for exploration, 63 per cent for development and 19 per cent for production.