Construction of the main structure for the Dongfang 1-1 gas field central platform, China's first demonstration project applying offshore carbon injection technology to enhance natural gas production, was completed on Sunday.
The new central platform at the gasfield has entered the commissioning stage. Once fully operational, the project is designed to permanently store more than one million tonnes of carbon dioxide underground each year, supporting large-scale emissions reduction in China's offshore energy industry.
Natural gas extracted from the seabed often contains large amounts of carbon dioxide. Traditionally, this carbon-rich gas is transported to onshore processing plants for centralized decarbonization, which is a practice that entails high transport costs, long operation cycle and substantial carbon emissions.
By comparison, the offshore carbon injection project at the Dongfang 1-1 gasfield can capture and purify the carbon dioxide emitted during natural gas extraction and then pressurize and inject it back into gas-bearing reservoirs. This process drives the extraction of hard-to-recover natural gas while permanently sequestering the carbon dioxide, thereby boosting gas field output and reducing carbon emissions at the source.
The Dongfang 1-1 gas field is China's first offshore self-operated gas field and a major offshore gas field with high CO2 content. Since production began in 2003, it has produced more than 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
China completes main structure of first offshore CO2 injection platform
