CNOOC Starts Production in Suizhong 36-2 Oilfield in Bohai Sea

The Suizhong 36-2 Oilfield 36-2 Block Development Project in the Bohai Sea is now onstream, contributing light crude oil to CNOOC Ltd.’s production.

The state-backed oil and gas exploration and production company expects the project to reach about 9,700 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boed) in peak production in 2026, according to a statement on CNOOC Ltd.’s website.

The Suizhong 36-2 Oilfield 36-2 Block Development Project, 100 percent owned by CNOOC Ltd., sits in Liaodong Bay in water depths of about 27 meters (88.58 feet) on average.

The project has a new unmanned wellhead platform as the main production facility but also relies on the facilities of adjacent producing projects to process and transport petroleum, according to CNOOC Ltd.

CNOOC Ltd., majority-owned by China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), eyes 21 development wells in the project, 16 of which would be for production. The remaining five would be for water injection.

Earlier this month CNOOC Ltd. announced the startup of the Jinzhou 23-2 Oilfield Development Project, also in the Bohai Sea, calling it “the first multi-layer heavy oil thermal recovery project offshore China”.

The company expects the project to reach about 17,000 boed in peak production in 2027. The oil is heavy crude.

 “The project adopts the method of ‘steam stimulation+chemical auxiliary steam flooding’ to reduce the viscosity of crude oil, thus effectively improve [sic] the utilization of reserves in offshore heavy oil field”, CNOOC Ltd. said in a press release December 3.

“It will strengthen the energy supply to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region”.

The production facilities include two new central processing platforms. CNOOC Ltd. eyes 67 development wells in the project, 65 of which would be for production. The remaining two would be water source wells.

Jinzhou 23-2, fully owned by CNOOC Ltd., sits on the northern part of the Bohai Sea in water depths of around 13 meters (42.65 feet) on average, according to the company. The Bohai Sea is the northwestern part of the Yellow Sea, which is sandwiched between the Chinese mainland and the Korean Peninsula. 

CNOOC Ltd. has now announced five start-ups in Bohai waters this year. The three earlier ones are the Bozhong 19-2 Oilfield Development Project, the Bozhong 19-6 Gas Field 13-2 Block 5 Well Site Development Project and the Suizhong 36-1/Luda 5-2 Oilfield Secondary Adjustment and Development Project.

Also this month CNOOC Ltd. announced its sixth startup in the South China Sea in 2024, the Huizhou 26-6 Oilfield Development Project in the Pearl River Mouth Basin.

Huizhou 26-6, CNOOC Ltd.’s “first deep buried hill reservoir development project in the South China Sea”, is expected to reach about 20,600 boed in peak production in 2027, it said December 2. The project, which has an average water depth of around 110 meters (360.89 feet), mainly produces light crude and natural gas.

The sole owner plans to commission 19 wells consisting of 17 for gas production and two for oil production. “The main production facilities include a new intelligent drilling production platform, as well as the adaptively-modified ‘NAN HAI FEN JIN’ FPSO [floating production, storage and offloading unit]”, CNOOC Ltd. said.

“The Company has been actively adopting the state-of-art technologies”, it added. “The first intelligent offshore drilling production platform in China was built for this project to realize efficient development of the offshore oil and gas resources”.

“The new project will contribute to the economic and social development of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area”, it said.

In the South China Sea, before Huizhou 26-6, CNOOC Ltd. put onstream the Liuhua 11-1/4-1 Oilfield Secondary Development Project, the Shenhai-1 Phase II Natural Gas Development Project, the Wushi 17-2 Oilfields Development Project, the Wushi 23-5 Oilfields Development Project and the Xijiang 30-2 Oilfield Xijiang 30-1 Block Development Project.

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