China: CNOOC Production Down Due to Penglai Oilfield Shutdown

CNOOC Limited today announce its results for the first quarter of 2012.  In this quarter, the Company achieved a total net production of 79.8 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), representing 6.3% decrease year over year (YoY) mainly due to the suspension of production of Penglai 19-3 oilfield at Bohai which is operated under a production sharing contract.

For the first quarter of 2012, the Company made five new discoveries and drilled five successful appraisal wells in offshore China, among which Kenli 2-1 at Bohai was a mid to large sized new oil discovery and large discovery of Penglai 9-1 was successfully appraised. In addition, Dongfang 13-2 discovery was made in high-temperature and high-pressure natural gas reservoir in Yinggehai. During the period, the Company’s major projects were in progress as planned. In the aspect of overseas development, the Company completed the acquisition of one-third interests in each of Exploration Areas 1, 2 and 3A in Uganda from Tullow Oil plc.

In this quarter, the unaudited oil and gas sales revenue of the Company reached approximately RMB48.84 billion, representing 3.7% increase YoY. During the period, the Company’s average realized oil price increased 19.4% YoY to US$120.79 per barrel while the average realized gas price increased 19.8% YoY to US$5.88 per thousand cubic feet.

Within the period, as the Company enhanced exploration and development activities, its capital expenditure increased 58.2% YoY to about RMB9.64 billion.

Mr. Li Fanrong, Chief Executive Officer of the Company commented, “In the first quarter, the Company had made significant progress in exploration area, particularly by obtaining a mid to large sized new oil discovery and successful appraisal of a large oilfield in Bohai. I believe these achievements will strongly support our production growth target of 6-10% CAGR from 2011 to 2015.”

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Source: CNOOC, April 24, 2012