Chinese major makes ‘hundred-million-ton’ oil discovery in South China Sea

Chinese state-owned oil and gas giant China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has made what it says is a major oilfield discovery in the deep and ultra-deep South China Sea plays.

According to the Chinese firm, the discovery, adding over a hundred million tons of proved in-place oil equivalent, was made in the Huizhou 19-6 oilfield, located in the eastern South China Sea, with an average water depth of approximately 100 meters. The main oil-bearing plays are said to be Paleogene Enping Formation and Wenchang Formation, holding light crude oil.

As stated by CNOOC, the discovery well HZ19-6-3 was drilled using the Haiyangshiyou 943 rig. Completed at a depth of 5,415 meters, a total of 127 meters of oil and gas pay zones were found. The Chinese player claims testing confirmed the well’s daily capacity to produce 413 barrels of crude oil and 2.41 million cubic feet of natural gas.

CNOOC’s Chief Geologist, Xu Changgui, said: “This discovery has confirmed the largest integrated clastic oilfield in the northern South China Sea in terms of original oil in place, breaking the traditional theoretical understanding, and demonstrating the enormous exploration potential of deep and ultra-deep plays in high-temperature and highly active basins offshore China.”

CNOOC’s CEO Zhou Xinhuai described the eastern South China Sea as a new driver of the offshore oil and gas production growth, noting that several oilfields with a hundred-million-ton oil in-place have been discovered in this area for two consecutive years.

It has been a busy month for the Chinese player. Earlier this month, the firm started production from the Caofeidian 6-4 oilfield comprehensive adjustment project and Wenchang 19-1 oilfield Phase II.

Before that, an oil and gas pay zone of 283 meters was found at the Weizhou 10-5 oil and gas field in the Beibu Gulf of the South China Sea.