The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has discovered an oilfield in the South China Sea with proven reserves exceeding 100 million tons, state news agency, Xinhua, reported on Monday.
The newly discovered oilfield in the eastern South China Sea – the Huizhou 19-6 oilfield – was about 170 kilometres from Shenzhen in south China’s Guangdong Province, the news agency said.
Daily production of 413 barrels of crude oil and 68,000 cubic meters of natural gas has been yielded after test drilling, it added.
The oilfield marks a breakthrough in China’s offshore oil exploration, as it is the country’s first large-scale integrated clastic oilfield discovered in deep to ultra-deep layers, CNOOC said.
The company added that offshore oil and gas exploration in deep to ultra-deep layers faces multiple challenges, including high temperatures, high pressures, and complex conditions.
According to the US Energy Information Administration cited in a news agency AFP report, the South China Sea is mostly underexplored because of territorial disputes, but most discovered oil and gas are in uncontested areas.
China claims as its own almost all of the South China Sea, but this is disputed by the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brunei.
