China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced Tuesday that a newly developed oilfield in the Bohai Sea has gone into production, marking a significant step in the country's offshore energy exploration.
The Kenli 10-2 oilfield, located in the southern waters of the Bohai Sea, is the largest lithologic oilfield discovered in China's offshore areas, with proven geological reserves exceeding 100 million tons.
"The Kenli 10-2 oil field project consists of the first and second phases. The initial phase's newly commissioned facilities include a central processing platform and two unmanned wellhead platforms, with 79 development wells planned to go into production. The peak daily output of the oilfield project is expected to reach 3,000 tons of oil and gas equivalent," said Dai Qijia, director of the Kenli 10-2 oilfield project of CNOOC.
The oilfield lies in waters about 20 meters in depth, but presents substantial technical challenges due to its complex heavy oil composition.
"Through persistent efforts to tackle the hard scientific-technological problems and make exploration, we have given rise to the formation of a sophisticated technical system for the development of heavy oil reservoirs. The system enables the precise mapping of underground reservoir structures and allows for targeted high-temperature steam injection into the strata to enhance oil extraction, providing critical technical support for efficient development of the Kenli 10-2 oilfield," said Cai Hui, a CNOOC engineer.
The successful commissioning of Phase I of the Kenli 10-2 oilfield cluster marks the start of a new era in the development of complex offshore heavy oil reservoirs in China, which will powerfully promote China's efforts to realize the goal of enabling the Bohai Sea Oilfield -- the largest offshore oilfield in the country -- to raise its annual oil output to 40 million tons within the year.
China brings major oilfield in Bohai Sea into production
