CNOOC has installed the largest and heaviest offshore platform at a field in the Bohai Sea, the company said today, boasting the facility was 22.8 meters high and weighed over 20,000 tons.
The platform was installed at the Kenli field, at a depth of some 20 meters, which has proven reserves of some 100 million tons of crude oil.
In separate news, CNOOC said it had begun production at another field in the South China Sea. The Weizhou 5-3 development lies in a depth of some 35 meters, the company said, and features seven production wells, two water injection wells, and one gas injection well. Production is seen peaking at 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily, to be reached in 2026.
CNOOC, which specializes in offshore oil and gas developments in China and internationally, reported earlier this year that its net oil and gas production for 2024 was about 720 million barrels of oil equivalent—setting a record high for the sixth consecutive year. It also booked a profit jump of 11.4% for 2024, to $19 billion, on the back of the record-breaking production rate.
For 2025, the company lowered its production outlook and said it would keep capital expenditure at 2024 levels, but going forward, it said there were more record-breaking plans in production for the next two years. In 2025, the capital expenditure for exploration in China will mainly be directed to sustain crude oil reserves while expanding natural gas reserves, led by the construction of the three trillion-cubic-meters-level gas regions, CNOOC said in January, as it continues to follow China’s directive to state majors to boost domestic oil and gas reserves and supply.
The Chinese government has insisted that local energy majors do their best to boost local supply of energy commodities in order to reduce the country’s dependence on imports.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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