CNOOC's oil and gas extraction facility (Photo/CNOOC)

The accumulated oil and gas production of offshore oilfields over the past 30 years located in the Liaodong Bay of Bohai Sea exceeded 200 million tons, equivalent to 40 years of oil and gas consumption in a city of 10 million people in China, PetroChina and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced on Monday.

“We have developed several oilfields with 100-million-ton output in Liaodong Bay and have produced 10 million tons of oil for 12 consecutive years,” Li Chunyong, an official from CNOOC’s branch in Tianjin was quoted as saying in an interview with the China Media Group.

Liaodong Bay, an area of sea with the highest latitude in China, is rich in oil and gas resources, with accumulated geological reserves of oil exceeding 800 million tons and natural gas over 70 billion cubic meters. 

The Bohai Oilfield has already built 68 offshore oil production facilities and 3 onshore terminal plants in Liaodong Bay, with more than 1,300 oil wells.

During the extraction of gas and oil in the bay, the CNOOC has overcome a number of technical difficulties with “anti-ice technology,” as the bay has a  a freezing period of up to 3 months in a year.

The extraction of heavy oil represents another major breakthrough in Liaodong Bay. Heavy oil, a crude oil with poor fluidity, is buried underground at room temperature, which is difficult to be extracted coupled with the lack of space on the offshore platforms. 

Through the heavy oil thermal recovery technology, the annual production of heavy oil with thermal recovery in Bohai Oilfield has exceeded 300,000 tons for the first time in 2021.

In April 2022, the world's first offshore ultra-heavy oil development field was put into operation, marking China's offshore heavy oil extraction technology has reached the world's first-class level. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period 2021-25, the annual output of heavy oil in Liaodong Bay is expected to reach a planned  3 million tons.

Over the next three years, the company will have a number of new oil fields put into operation and realize shore power access to oil and gas field grid.

Global Times