Photo: Courtesy of CNOOC

China has discovered its first deep-water, deep-reservoir oil find in the South China Sea, state-owned oil giant CNOOC announced on Friday.

The Kaipingnan oilfield, 300 kilometers southwest of the waters of Shenzhen in South China, has a proven reserve of 102 million tons of oil equivalent, according to the company.

It is the first oil reserve with a water depth of over 300 meters and a well depth of over 3,000 meters found by China's own efforts, as well as the largest, said CNOOC. The maximum depth where the oilfield lies is 532 meters and the maximum well depth reached 4,831 meters.

Testing drilling yields over 1,000 tons of oil and gas on a daily basis, which is a new record in China for a deep-water, deep-reservoir oilfield, the company said.

The Kaipingnan oilfield demonstrated the vast potential of deep-water exploration in the South China Sea, and further consolidated the foundation of China's offshore oil and gas reserve, which is significant toward ensuring the country's energy security, the company said in a press release on Friday.

In recent years, CNOOC made significant discoveries at the Bozhong 26-6 deep-reservoir oilfield in China's Bohai Sea and the Baodao 21-1 gas field in western South China Sea.

Zhou Xinhuai, CEO of CNOOC, said the company's continuous discoveries in the eastern part of the South China Sea forged new growth drivers for the company's offshore oil and gas business, noting the company will continue to pour more efforts in oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea to ramp up energy supply capacity.

Global Times