CNOOC Discovers "Hundreds of Millions of Tons" of Oilfield in the South China Sea

CNOOC has discovered a super-large oil field in the deep and ultra-deep water areas of the South China Sea. According to the company, the newly discovered proven oil geological reserves exceed 100 million tons. It is located in the Huizhou 19-6 oil field in the eastern South China Sea, with an average water depth of about 100 meters. It is said that the main oil and gas formations are the Paleogene Enping Formation and Wenchang Formation, which contain light crude oil.

CNOOC said that the discovery well HZ19-6-3 was drilled by the Haiyang Shiyou 943 drilling rig, with a completion depth of 5,415 meters and a total of 127 meters of oil and gas layers. CNOOC said that tests confirmed that the well produces 413 barrels of crude oil and 2.41 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Xu Changgui, chief geologist of CNOOC, said: "This discovery has confirmed the largest intact clastic oil field with original petroleum geological reserves in the northern part of the South China Sea, breaking through the traditional theoretical understanding and demonstrating the huge potential of deep and ultra-deep oil and gas exploration in China's offshore high-temperature and active basins."

CNOOC CEO Zhou Xinhuai said that the eastern waters of the South China Sea have become a new engine for the growth of China's offshore oil and gas production, and hundreds of millions of tons oil fields have been discovered in the area for two consecutive years.