China Discovers New Oil Field: Produces 560 Barrels Per Day, Has 100 Million Tons Of Reserves

Illustration of an offshore oil drilling rig. (Wikimedia Commons/Andyminicooper)

JAKARTA - The world's economic giant China is happy, along with the success of one of the giant state-owned oil companies, finding new oil fields.

It is located in the Bohai economic region, northeast of China which is considered a major oil and gas producing region for the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The new field was discovered at the Kenli Field 10-2 site, Bohai Bay, the company said in a statement Thursday. This discovery is called one of the 'big' oil discoveries.

The crude oil was found in the southern part of the bay, which is located about 245 km from Tianjin City. The area found is home to conventional heavy oil, and is estimated to contain around 100 million tonnes of reserves.

"The Kenli 10-2-4 discovery well was drilled and completed at a depth of 1,520 meters, and found an oil-producing zone with a total thickness of about 27 meters," reads a statement from CNOOC, citing Sputnik News September 30.

According to the company, the results of tests carried out on the appraisal oil well show that the new location is capable of producing about 569 barrels of oil per day.

Last week, CNOOC revealed that it had started oil production at the Bozhong 19-4 oil field, which is also located in the southern Bohai Sea. The company estimates the Bozhong oil production project can produce around 11,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The peak could be reached as early as 2022, the oil giant believes.

Meanwhile, Xu Changgui, general manager of CNOOC's Department of Petroleum Exploration, said Kenli10-2 is the first 100 million tonne oil field discovered from the shallow layer of Bohai Bay, which shows the area's great potential in lithological oil and gas reserves, citing CGTN.

CNOOC is known to be the third largest oil producer in China after CNPC and the Sinopec group. The company owns a number of oil and gas fields in the South China Sea, but the Bohai Economic Circle remains its main production area.

The company extracts a third of its domestic production in the area, with about 477,374 barrels of oil equivalent per day, according to 2020 estimates. That makes CNOOC China's largest offshore producer of crude oil and natural gas. Its core operating areas are Bohai, West South China Sea, East South China Sea and East China Sea.