The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China's largest offshore oil company, announced Wednesday that it discovered 200 million cubic meters of oil in Bohai Bay this year.

CNOOC made the announcement after the discovery of the Jinxian (JX) 1-1 high yield oil-bearing structure while drilling the JX1-1-2D well in Liaodong Bay, in the eastern part of Bohai Bay. The JX1-1-2D was dug last August with a depth of 3,143 meters. The well encountered about 31.5 meters of pay zones.

Drill stem tests were conducted at various intervals. On 7.94 mm and 11.91 mm chokes, the well flowed about 1,000 barrels of crude oil and more than 730,000 cubic feet of gas per day.

So far, CNOOC has made eight new discoveries in Bohai Bay with an estimated oil reserve of 200 million cubic meters and gas reserve of 1.5 billion cubic meters.

The discoveries make it possible for the Bohai Bay to turn out 30 million cubic meters of oil by 2010, said a CNOOC senior manager.

According to CNOOC, the Bohai Bay produced 14 million cubic meters of oil and gas this year, becoming the third largest oilfield of the country.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2005)