CNOOC starts up fifth project off China in 2020

Exploration & Production

September 21, 2020, by Bojan Lepic

Chinese oil and gas company CNOOC has produced first oil from the Liuhua 16-2 and 20-1 joint development project in the South China Sea.

The Liuhua 16-2 and 20-2 oilfield joint development project is located in the eastern South China Sea, in an average water depth of around 410 meters.

The development includes one newbuild 150,000 dwt FPSO and three underwater production systems.

CNOOC said on Sunday that a total of 26 development wells were planned to be put into production and development.

The project is expected to reach its peak production of approximately 72,800 barrels of crude oil per day in 2022.

It is worth noting that CNOOC holds 100 per cent interest in the Liuhua 16-2 oilfield/ 20-2 oilfield joint development project.

Liuhua 16-2 was discovered in May 2010 and contains 67-metre-thick oil pay zones. Located in the north-eastern part of Baiyun Sag, it is the first oil discovery to be made in the region.

The Liuhua 20-2 field was discovered by the LH20-2-1 discovery well in May 2015. The well was drilled to a depth of 2,970 metres and encountered 35.2-metre–thick oil pay zones. It was tested and flowed at the rate of 8,000 barrels of oil per day, with a crude oil density of 0.75.

To remind, CNOOC said in January that ten new projects were expected to come on stream. The projects in question were Luda 21-2/16-3 project, Penglai 19-3/Penglai 19-9, Qinhuangdao 33-1 South oil field phase I, Bozhong 19-6 gas field pilot area development project, Nanbao 35-2 oil filed S1 area, Jinzhou 25-1 oil field 6/11 area, Liuhua 29-1 gas field development project, and Liuhua 16-2/20-2 joint development project in offshore China.

The only two projects, not offshore China, are the Liza oil field Phase 1 in Guyana and Buzzard oil field Phase II in the UK.

In the same pre-COVID announcement, CNOOC Limited stated it would have a $13.7 billion 2020 capex budget to increase in its oil and gas reserves and production with 227 exploration wells planned to be drilled during the year.