CNOOC Ltd. announced on Monday the start of production at two oil development projects offshore China, as part of efforts to raise full-year production to 660 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe ).
The larger of the two, Lufeng 12-3, is expected to reach peak output of about 29,000 barrels of crude oil per day next year, the majority state-owned company said in a press release.
“Lufeng 12-3 Oilfield is the largest oilfield jointly developed in the South China Sea in the past decade,” CNOOC said. “It will provide a stable power supply to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area and contribute to the high-quality development of the local economy.”
Located in the eastern South China Sea with an average water depth of 787.4 feet (about 240 meters), the project plans to put 13 wells on production. Lufeng 12-3’s main production facilities include a wellhead platform and a new-build 100,000 metric ton floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, according to CNOOC.
In the other project, called Bozhong 28-2 South Oilfield Second Adjustment, CNOOC expects peak production of 7,600 barrels of oil per day by 2024. At Bozhong 28-2 CNOOC plans to commission 21 development wells, which will consist of 13 production wells and eight. water injection wells, according to the press release.
Located in the southern Bohai Sea, with an average water depth of 68.9 feet (about 21 meters), the project’s main production facilities include a central platform and a subsea water injection pipeline.
CNOOC operates the Bozhong 28-2 South Oilfield Second Adjustment with a 100 percent stake, while SK Earthon Co. Ltd. is the operator of Lufeng 12-3 with a 39.2 percent stake, although CNOOC is the majority shareholder with a 60.8 percent stake.
The two projects are among several that CNOOC has planned for this year, during which it aims to produce 650-660 MMboe net. The company plans to achieve 70 percent of the target through domestic production and 30 percent through its overseas operations, according to CNOOC’s capital budget announcement on Jan. 11. “Net production is expected to reach 690-700 million BOE in 2024 and 730-740 million BOE in 2025,” the announcement said.
CNOOC has scheduled nine oil and gas projects for commissioning this year. In addition to Bozhong 28-2 and Lufeng 12-3, these include China’s Bozhong 19-6 condensate gas field Phase I development project and the Enping 18-6 oil field development project, as well as the Brazilian Buzios5 project and the Mero2 project and Guyana’s Payara project, as it is called. in the announcement of the capital budget.
Buzios 5 has previously been commissioned with an initial average daily production of 600,000 barrels, as announced by CNOOC on June 1. Five wells drilled in the Brazil project will produce up to 150,000 barrels of oil and 211.89 million cubic feet (six million cubic meters). of gas per day, CNOOC said in the announcement, calling Buzios5 “the world’s largest deepwater pre-salt oil field.”
Buzios5, which is located in the Santos Basin in water depths of 6,233.6 to 7,217.85 feet (1,900 to 2,200 meters), will have an FPSO and a subsea production system, according to the announcement.
CNOOC’s wholly-owned subsidiary CNOOC Petroleum Brasil Ltda has a 7.34 percent stake in the shared Buzios reservoir, which is operated by Brazil’s state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro SA with an 88.99 percent stake . CNODC Brasil Petroleo e Gas Ltda has 3.67 percent.
“Buzios5 is the first project to start production after CNOOC Limited joined the Buzios project, which will give new impetus to our overseas production growth,” noted CNOOC’s then chairman Xia Qinglong. in the June announcement.
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