CNOOC reports oil and gas discovery in South China Sea

The Chinese state-run CNOOC on March 8 announced an oil and gas discovery in the South China Sea, contributing over 100mn tonnes of oil equivalent to the proved in-place volume.

The Kaiping South oilfield, situated in the eastern South China Sea with an average water depth of approximately 500 meters, revealed promising results from the discovery well KP18-1-1d, drilled to a depth of 3,462 meters. The drilling encountered a total of 100.6 meters of oil and gas pay zones.

During testing, the well demonstrated an average production of around 7,680 barrels of crude oil and 0.52mn ft³ of natural gas per day.

“Kaiping South Oilfield is China’s first deep-water and deep-play oilfield with proved in-place volume over a hundred million tons,” Xu Changgui, deputy chief exploration officer, said. “The discovery fully demonstrates the broad prospects for exploration in deep-water South China Sea and further expands the resource base for the Company’s high-quality development.”