An aerial view of a dock in Chengmai, South China's Hainan Province Photo: Courtesy of CNOOC Hainan Dock Ltd

China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), the country's largest offshore oil producer, pledged to secure the energy supply for the construction of the Hainan free trade port (FTP) in South China, and to ensure oil and natural gas exploration and development in the South China Sea.

CNOOC Hainan Dock Ltd., CNOOC's Hainan branch, located at Hainan's Chengmai oil extraction service base, provides all necessary supplies for multiple offshore oil and gas extraction platforms in surrounding areas in the South China Sea, including the Deep Sea No.1, the Global Times learned.

CNOOC is the operator of the Deep Sea No.1, the world's first 100,000-ton-level deepwater semi-submersible oil production and storage platform and China's first self-operated 1,500-meter deepwater gas field.

All of the supplies used in offshore oil and gas extraction and scientific research are sent from a dock at the Chengmai oil extraction service base, the only deepsea service base in Hainan for oil exploration, development and production. 

Photo taken on May 12, 2021 shows the Deep Sea No.1 deep-water gas field, 150 kilometers off the city of Sanya in south China's Hainan Province. Deep Sea No.1, China's first self-operated 1,500-meter deep-water gas field, started production on Friday, according to the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).Photo:Xinhua

About 40 enterprises and 17 projects have settled at the base. In 2022, revenues of the base reached 7.464 billion yuan ($1.04 billion). In the first half of this year, revenues reached 4.2 billion yuan, the Global Times learned.

The total length of the dock's shoreline is 1,530.6 meters. Phase I of the dock entered operation in March 2014 and phase II in January 2021. 

Phase III of the dock, currently the subject of a feasibility study, will provide services for offshore oil and gas platforms that will have an annual output of 30 million cubic meters of oil equivalent after completion.

"More than 10 domestic and foreign energy enterprises have settled in the dock area, including Shell, Roc Oil and Sinopec," Liu Yanzhao, a representative of the CNOOC Hainan Dock, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

CNOOC's Hainan branch is capable of supplying all of Hainan's energy needs, and it will further secure the construction of the free trade port. 

The company's natural gas supplies account for 95 percent of Hainan's market, Liu said.

On April 13, 2018, China announced a decision to support Hainan in developing the whole island into a pilot free trade zone and gradually exploring and steadily promoting the establishment of an FTP with Chinese characteristics.

Nie Chengtao, an official at the Chengmai service base, told the Global Times that the total oil and natural gas reserve in the South China Sea has reached 46 billion tons of oil equivalent, accounting for one-third of China's overall oil and gas reserves, which play an important role in national energy security. 

"By 2025, the extraction from the western area of the South China Sea is expected to reach 20 million tons of oil equivalent, with 30 million tons of oil equivalent in 2030," said Nie.