Calling it "an important milestone" development, the company said that 500,000 barrels of 16.9-degree gravity API crude were off-loaded from a floating, processing, storage and offloading vessel for tanker transport to international markets.

The QHD crude is very low in sulfur and the newest crude oil on the Asian market, the San Francisco-based company said.

"We anticipate the significant growth of production volumes of this type of crude from the Bohai Gulf area within the next five years, making this oil an important new energy source for Asia," managing director of ChevronTexaco's China strategic business unit Sam Snyder said in a statement.

According to the company, current development of the QHD 32-6 oilfield consists of 46 production wells aboard two wellhead platforms, with production transported to the vessel through a single-point mooring system.

First production flowed from the field beginning October 8 of this year. Current production from the field is 29,000 barrels of oil per day. Full field development, with estimated average production of 65,000 barrels per day, is expected by October 2002, enabled by the installation of up to 160 wells from six platform structures.

The QHD 32-6 field was discovered in 20 meters of water by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in 1995. Partners in the field include the operator, CNOOC Itd., with a 51-percent interest, and ChevronTexaco and BP, each with 24.5 percent.

Since 1979, predecessor companies Chevron and Texaco have invested in a number of energy projects in China. ChevronTexaco is a partner in one of the first offshore oil production projects in the Pearl River Mouth Basin area of the South China Sea.

(People's Daily December 13, 2001)