China commissioned its first offshore carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) facility at the Enping 15-1 oilfield in the Pearl River Mouth Basin on Thursday, marking a major technological advancement in maritime carbon management, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced Thursday.
Located in 90-meter-deep waters about 200 kilometers southwest of Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province, the project employs a full-chain process to capture, purify, compress and inject associated carbon dioxide (CO2) from oilfield operations.
The system converts CO2 into supercritical state and injects it into reservoirs 1,200 to 1,600 meters below the seabed at a rate of eight tonnes per hour, simultaneously enhancing crude oil recovery while permanently sequestering greenhouse gases.
"The successful commissioning of this project marks a comprehensive upgrade in China's offshore CCUS equipment technology. Over the next decade, it will enable large-scale reinjection of over one million tonnes of carbon dioxide while boosting crude oil production by 200,000 tonnes," said Xiong Shuquan, chief engineer of Enping Oilfield Operations of the CNOOC Shenzhen Branch.
The Enping 15-1 platform, Asia's largest offshore oil production facility, has been retrofitted with domestically-developed CO2 compressors and gas processing systems to create China's first integrated offshore CCUS engineering system with 100-percent China-made equipment.
China's offshore areas possess an estimated 2.58 trillion tonnes of CO2 storage capacity, providing vast potential for scaling the technology. CNOOC has already initiated a 10-million-ton carbon capture and storage cluster project in Huizhou City of Guangdong, aiming to create an internationally competitive offshore CCUS industrial chain by transporting emissions from Daya Bay industries to underwater storage sites in the Pearl River Mouth Basin.
Marine environments are emerging as prime carbon storage locations globally due to their distance from populated areas and enormous capacity. China's rapid CCUS technological developments are transitioning pilot projects into large-scale applications, positioning the country at the forefront of this critical climate solution sector.
China achieves breakthrough with first offshore carbon capture, utilization storage project
China achieves breakthrough with first offshore carbon capture, utilization storage project
China achieves breakthrough with first offshore carbon capture, utilization storage project
China will roll out a series of targeted measures to stabilize investment and unlock greater space for private capital, an official said on Thursday.
Chen Changsheng, deputy director of the State Council Research Office who participated in the drafting of this year's Government Work Report, made the statement at a press briefing held in Beijing.
He noted that China will leverage the guiding role of government funding and the driving effect of major projects to shore up investment.
Total government investment this year is set to exceed five trillion yuan (about 725 billion U.S. dollars), which will come from central budget investment and local government special bonds for major national strategies and security capacity building projects and equipment upgrades. Meanwhile, 109 major projects have been planned in the draft outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030).
China will also stimulate investment by opening up more application scenarios for businesses.
On the traditional front, a long-term mechanism will be improved to encourage private enterprises to participate in major national projects. For emerging sectors, China will further open scenarios in biomedicine, aerospace, and the low-altitude economy.
"Low-altitude economy has developed rapidly in recent years, with sound applications seen in fields such as agriculture, forestry plant protection, as well as surveying and inspection. Going forward, we will accelerate the opening of airspace resources and streamline approval procedures for low-altitude flights. This will unlock new scenarios including low-altitude logistics and urban management. Similar new opportunities can also be found in service robots and other sectors, all of which will create new space for private investment," Chen said.
By deepening reforms to further unlock investment potential, China will ease market access in the service sector, speed up revisions to the Bidding Law and the Government Procurement Law, and advance price reforms to broaden investment access for more enterprises.
"We will see a new round of investment potential unleashed. Major projects including the national water network, a new round of power grid upgrades, new generation communication networks, and computing power networks will drive massive investment, including demand from urban development. In addition, the campaign this year to expand and upgrade the service sector and the development of emerging industries will further expand space for private investment," Chen noted.
China to take measures to boost investment, expand space for private investment in 2026: official
