China's Bohai Sea Oilfield, the country's largest offshore oil producing base Photo: cnsphoto

The world's first floating thermal injection platform used for heavy oil thermal recovery was launched at a shipyard located in East China, marking a major technological breakthrough in tapping offshore heavy oil and bolstering the country's energy security, domestic media outlet stdaily.com reported on Tuesday.

The platform plays a vital role in the heavy oil thermal recovery approach to tap semifluid heavy oil resources, of which China has a reserve of 19.87 billion tons, according to the news report.

The thermal oil recovery method reduces the viscosity of heavy oil by increasing the temperature of heavy crude oil in its formations, thus reducing the oil viscosity.

The platform, launched at a shipyard in Weihai in East China's Shandong Province, will allow oil companies to find a new pathway to tap offshore heavy oil in a highly efficient manner, the report said.

Efforts to tap the hidden oil treasures in the Bohai Sea, where half of China's proven heavy oil reserve lies, are of great importance to the state-owned oil major China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC)'s strategy of accelerating the construction of an oil and gas resource supply hub, and achieving the goal of increasing annual oil and gas production in the Bohai Oilfield to 40 million tons.

Equipped with three massive steam boilers, the platform is capable of supplying high-pressure steam with a temperature exceeding 300 C to a maximum of six nearby oil wells. 

The centralized steam supply method far outpaced the traditional independent thermal injection method in efficiency and production cost. After completing service, the platform can be moved to other areas with the help of tugboats to serve other wells.

In the first six months of 2024, China's marine economy has kept on expanding. The sector's gross output reached 4.9 trillion yuan ($678.55 billion), up 5.6 percent year-on-year, state broadcaster China Central Television reported on July 31, citing data from the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Significantly, marine equipment manufacturing has witnessed a marked rebound, with the new orders of marine engineering projects increased by 205 percent year-on-year, the report said.

The Bohai Oilfield, which is also China's largest offshore crude oil producer, achieved a record oil and gas output of over 36.8 million tons of oil equivalent in 2023, with crude oil output topping 34 million tons and natural gas production exceeding 3.5 billion cubic meters, the CNOOC announced in January.