China National Offshore Oil Company Limited (CNOOC Ltd) announced Monday that its independent oil field in the eastern South China Sea has successfully begun production.
The oil field, Lufeng (LF) 13-2, is flowing about 18,000 barrels of oil per day from three horizontal wells (Horizontal wells offer significant cost-savings and technical advantages over conventional vertical wells). The production capacity of these wells is tested at 30,000 barrels of oil per day.
LF13-2 is located in the western part of Block LF 08 in the mouth of Pearl River Basin with a water depth of approximately 132 meters. The field is about 210 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong and 12 kilometers northwest of another field, LF13-1.
Major production facilities of the project include a wellhead production platform, a 12-kilometer underwater pipeline and cables. The crude drilled will be transported to and processed in LF13-1.
LF13-2 is the first project developed by CNOOC Ltd independently in the eastern South China Sea.
CNOOC Ltd, incorporated in Hong Kong, is a 70.64 percent held subsidiary of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China's largest offshore oil producer.
CNOOC Ltd is the sole vehicle through which CNOOC carries out oil and gas exploration, development, production and sales.
CNOOC Ltd owns and operates LF13-2. In the past, CNOOC's technology capability limitations meant that most of the fields in the eastern South China Sea were developed and operated jointly with international partners.
The successful start-up of the project has laid a solid basis for CNOOC to achieve its goal of producing 55 million cubic meters of oil and gas by 2010, said a senior manager with CNOOC Ltd.
To date, the eastern South China Sea has seen its annual oil and gas yield surpass 10 million cubic meters for 10 consecutive years, making it the fourth largest oil field in the country.
(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2005)
