China's Bohai Bay may have reserves of 20 billion tons of oil,
with half of them still undiscovered, said Zhai Guangming, an oil
exploration expert with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
The Bohai Bay rim was estimated to have about 60 basins similar
to the newly found Jidong Nanpu oilfield, said Zhai, who is also
the first manager of the Jidong Oilfield Co. under China National
Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
Zhai's remarks were echoed by Xia Yishan, an expert with the
National Energy Leading Group, who said, "Given the geological
structure in the regions surrounding the Bohai Sea, more oilfields
will be discovered".
CNPC, the country's biggest oil and gas producer, says the newly
found oilfield, with a reserve of 1.02 billion tons of oil, will
increase the company's oil reserves by 55 percent and its gas
reserves by nine percent.
CNPC has plans to develop the oilfield, with the first-phase
project, to be finished by 2012, yielding 10 million tons per
year.
Output is expected to rise progressively to 25 million tons a
year, making it China's third largest field after Daqing and
Shengli.
Considering the environmentally sensitive areas near the Bohai
Sea, the oilfield was expected to become China's first "green
oilfield", with all discharges properly treated and waste recycled,
said CNPC vice president Hu Wenrui.
(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2007)