China National Offshore Oil Company Limited (CNOOC Ltd.) announced Tuesday its partner, Husky Oil China Limited, a subsidiary of Husky Energy Inc., has discovered a new deepwater gas field in the South China Sea.

The LiuHua (LH) 29-1 field is the third deepwater gas discovery made in Block 29/26 of the Pearl River Mouth Basin in the eastern South China Sea, after other discoveries in 2006 and 2009, CNOOC said in a statement on its website.

The well, drilled to a total depth of 3,331 meters with a water depth of about 720 meters, was tested to flow 57 million cubic feet (1.61 million cubic meters) of natural gas per day.

Zhu Weilin, executive vice president of the CNOOC Ltd. and general manager of exploration department, said the deepwater area is one of the major exploration efforts for CNOOC Ltd. in 2010.

The LH 29-1 field will be further appraised in 2010 by Canada-based Husky, which signed a production sharing agreement for Block 29/26 with CNOOC Ltd. in 2004.

According to the contract, CNOOC Ltd. has the right to hold up to 51 percent interest in any commercial discoveries in Block 29/26.

CNOOC Ltd. is the listed subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, China's largest offshore oil company.