CNOOC Ltd. continues a flurry of production ramp-up in the South China Sea, announcing Tuesday the start of production at the Xijiang 30-2 Oilfield Xijiang 30-1 Block Development Project.
This is the fifth oil and gas project the state-backed company has put onstream in the South China Sea this year and the eighth across its portfolio in 2024. The other three are in the Bohai area of the Yellow Sea.
CNOOC Ltd., majority-owned by China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), expects the Xijiang 30-2 Oilfield Xijiang 30-1 Block Development Project to reach about 26,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boed) in peak production in 2027. The output is medium crude, CNOOC Ltd., the sole developer in the project, said in a statement.
The oil and gas exploration and production company plans to commission 23 development wells. The production facilities include a new drilling platform. The project has an average water depth of about 98 meters (321.5 feet).
Earlier this month CNOOC Ltd. said it had begun production in the Bozhong 19-2 Oilfield Development Project in central Bohai Bay. It expects the project to reach 18,800 barrels of heavy crude per day in peak production in 2025. CNOOC Ltd. aims to commission 59 development wells, 34 of which would be for production.
“Smart engineering and standardized construction have remarkably reduced the project’s construction cycle”, CNOOC said in a press release October 8. “It has strongly promoted the efficient development of offshore oil and gas resources and laid a solid foundation for the production growth in the Bohai oilfields, the largest crude oil production base in China”.
Bozhong 19-2 has an average water depth of about 20 meters (65.6 feet). The production facilities include a new central processing platform and four unmanned wellhead platforms. CNOOC Ltd. operates the project with a 100 percent stake.
Late in September CNOOC Ltd. said it had put online the Shenhai-1 Phase II Natural Gas Development Project in the northern South China Sea. It expects the Qiongdongnan Basin project to reach 162 million cubic feet and 3,931 barrels of condensate per day in peak production in 2025. CNOOC Ltd. aims to commission 12 development wells in the second-phase project.
“The project has successfully overcome the world-class challenge of deepwater high-pressure oil and gas reservoir development”, CNOOC Ltd. chair Wang Dongjin said in a statement September 27.
“It witnesses effective large-scale conversion of reserves into production from the ‘South China Sea trillion-cubic-meters-level gas region’, and provides stable supply of clean energy for the economic and social development of South China.
“In the future, CNOOC Limited will accelerate the development of new quality productivity of marine energy and strengthen the exploration and development of deepwater oil and gas resources, thereby further contributing to the high-quality development of China’s offshore oil industry”.
Shenhai 1 started operation June 2021 using the world's first deepwater semi-submersible oil production and storage platform, according to the 100 percent owner.
The second-phase project has an average water depth of about 900 meters (2,952.8 feet). The production facilities include a new fixed production platform and three centralized subsea wellheads.
Earlier in September CNOOC Ltd. said the Liuhua 11-1/4-1 Oilfield Secondary Development Project in the eastern South China Sea had started production. It expects the project, which consists of oilfields Liuhua 4-1 and Liuhua 11-1, to reach around 17,900 boed in peak output in 2026. CNOOC Ltd. aims to commission 32 wells in the project.
Liuhua 11-1/4-1 is the first oil project in Asia “to be developed with the 'Deepwater Jacket Platform + Cylindrical FPSO' mode”, CNOOC Ltd. chief executive and president Zhou Xinhuai said in a news release September 19. The production facilities include a new deepwater jacket platform and a cylindrical floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit. Liuhua 11-1/4-1 has an average water depth of around 305 meters (1,000.7 feet).
“While revitalizing the deepwater oilfields with original oil in place over 100 million tons, the new mode has substantially reduced the construction and production costs”, Zhou said. “It provides a Chinese solution for the efficient development of similar deepwater oil and gas fields”.
CNOOC Ltd., listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is the sole developer.
On September 4 it said it had started up the Wushi 17-2 Oilfields Development Project, located in the Beibu Gulf in water depths of around 28 meters (91.9 feet) on average. CNOOC Ltd. expects the project to achieve about 9,900 boed in peak production 2026. It plans to commission 43 development wells, 28 of which would be production wells. CNOOC Ltd. operates the project with an 80 percent stake.
Before the five projects put onstream over the last two months, CNOOC Ltd. started up three projects in 2024: the Suizhong 36-1/Luda 5-2 Oilfield Secondary Adjustment and Development Project, the Bozhong 19-6 Gas Field 13-2 Block 5 Well Site Development Project and the Wushi 23-5 Oilfields Development Project.
“Technological breakthroughs made the Company more competitive in the market”, CNOOC Ltd. said in a financial results report August 28. “Progress in exploration theory and technology guided the discovery of multiple oil and gas fields such as Lingshui 36-1, Bozhong 8-3 South and Longkou 7-1.
“In terms of development and construction, Liuhua 11-1/4-1 Oilfield Secondary Development Project adopted the innovative mode of ‘deep-water jacket platform + cylindrical FPSO’, creating a brand-new solution for the efficient development of deepwater oil and gas fields in offshore China.
“For drilling and completion, the Company drilled an ultra-deep extra extended reach well in Enping 21-4 oilfield, the first one of its type, setting new records for the deepest offshore drilling depth and horizontal length in offshore China. The well would significantly improve production efficiency of the project”.
On September 10 CNOOC Ltd. declared “the first major exploration breakthrough in ultra-deepwater carbonate rocks offshore China” after drilling nearly 3,000 meters (9,842.5 feet) deep into the Pearl River Mouth Basin.
The well sits in a water depth of nearly 1,640 meters (5,380.6 feet) in the Baiyun Sag, the biggest hydrocarbon sag in the Pearl River Mouth Basin according to the company. The total depth was nearly 4,400 meters (14,435.7 feet).
"Previously, exploration in China's ultra-deepwater areas mainly focused on clastic rocks”, the company’s chief geologist, Xu Changgui, said then. “The success of this well has, for the first time, revealed the enormous potential of carbonate rocks in China’s ultra-deep waters, marking significant breakthroughs in both exploration understanding and operational techniques”.
In the first half of 2024 CNOOC Ltd. produced 362.6 million boe, a 9.3 percent year-on-year increase and the company’s highest production in the January–June period.