CNOOC Ltd. announced Monday the start of production at the Wenchang 19-1 Oilfield Phase 2 Project in the South China Sea and the Caofeidian 6-4 Oilfield Comprehensive Adjustment Project in the Bohai Sea.
The oil and gas exploration and production company, which claims to be the biggest producer of oil and gas offshore China, has now announced six upstream start-ups in Chinese waters this year.
CNOOC Ltd., majority-owned by China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), expects the second phase of Wenchang 19-1 to reach 12,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boed) in peak production 2027. The project produces medium crude.
The Caofeidian 6-4 adjustment project is expected to achieve 11,000 boed in peak production 2026. The oil is light crude.
“The design concept of intelligent oil and gas fields were [sic] used in the two new projects”, CNOOC Ltd. said in a press release. “Some of the procedures, such as crude oil production, equipment maintenance, and safety management, were upgraded with intelligent technologies, to enhance the efficiency of hydrocarbon development”.
Wenchang 19-1 phase 2 uses a megawatt-level high-temperature flue gas ORC power generation unit able to produce up to 24 million kilowatt hours of electricity. The unit can cut the project’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by about 23,000 metric tons a year, according to CNOOC Ltd.
The Caofeidian 6-4 adjustment project re-injects associated gas into the reservoir using compressors, curbing the project’s CO2 emissions by around 13,000 metric tons a year, it said.
Wenchang 19-1 phase 2 sits in an average water depth of approximately 125 meters (410.1 feet) in the west of the Pearl River Mouth Basin. It has a new drilling and production platform but also uses adjacent existing facilities. CNOOC Ltd. eyes 13 production wells.
The Caofeidian 6-4 adjustment project, in the west of the Bohai Sea, has an average water depth of about 20 meters. The main facility is a new production wellhead platform. It also uses existing facilities. CNOOC Ltd. plans 25 wells: 22 for production and 3 for water injection.
It is the sole developer in both projects.
Previously in 2025 CNOOC Ltd. said it has put onstream two projects in the Bohai Sea and two in the South China Sea, all of which are solely owned by the company. The Bohai Sea projects are phase 2 of the Luda 5-2 North field and the Bozhong 26-6 field. The South China Sea projects are the Dongfang 29-1 field and the Panyu 11-12/10-1/10-2 Oilfield Adjustment Joint Development Project.
Luda 5-2 North phase 2 could reach about 6,700 boed in peak production next year, it announced February 21. Phase 1 went online 2022 as the first Chinese oilfield to produce from super-heavy oil reservoirs through thermal recovery, according to CNOOC Ltd.
It said of Luda 5-2 North phase 2, “CNOOC Limited made major technological breakthroughs in this project and significantly enhanced the development efficiency of offshore super heavy oil”.
“Through optimized Jet Pump Injection-Production Technology, the project realized efficient and economic development of heavy crude, which could further enhance the Company’s energy supply capacity”, CNOOC Ltd. added.
Bozhong 26-6 could reach 22,300 boed in peak production this year, it said February 7 announcing the start-up of what it called the globe’s biggest buried metamorphic hill oilfield.
Bozhong 26-6, which has an average water depth of about 20 meters, holds over 200 million cubic meters (7.06 billion cubic feet) of proven oil and gas in place, according to CNOOC Ltd.
It noted, “As one of the demonstration CCUS [carbon capture, utilization and storage] projects of the Company in Bohai, it adopts advanced technology to capture and separate the associated carbon dioxide from crude oil extraction and reinject back into the formation to drive the oil, thereby increasing production while reducing emissions”. The CCUS component is expected to bury about 1.5 million metric tons of CO2 throughout Bozhong 26-6’s life cycle.
“The successful commencement of production of Bozhong 26-6 Oilfield Development Project (Phase I) marks a new stage for the Company in the development of offshore deep play complicated buried hill oil and gas reservoirs as well as the construction of the Bohai CCUS base”, commented CNOOC Ltd. president Yan Hongtao.
“It bolsters the Company’s energy supply capacity and low-carbon development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Bohai Rim regions”.
Dongfang 29-1 could reach 38 million cubic feet a day in peak gas production 2025, CNOOC Ltd. said January 20.
Panyu 11-12/10-1/10-2 could reach 13,600 boed in peak production 2025, it said January 2. The Panyu field has produced over 380 million barrels of petroleum since coming online 2003, according to CNOOC Ltd.
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
