China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has received official approval for a proved gas in-place volume exceeding 100 billion cubic metres at the Lingshui 36-1 field in the South China Sea.
CNOOC said this discovery is the world’s first large ultra-shallow gas field in ultra-deepwater.
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With the approval, the total proved gas in-place in the South China Sea has surpassed 1tcm.
The Lingshui 36-1 field is located in the Qiongdongnan Basin at an average water depth of around 1,500m and a burial depth of 210m.
CNOOC has highlighted that the Lingshui 36-1 field has demonstrated a capacity to produce more than ten million cubic feet per day of natural gas.
The company’s exploration efforts in the South China Sea have yielded several other gas finds including the Dongfang 1-1, Liwan 3-1, Lingshui 17-2 and Baodao 21-1 fields.
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By GlobalDataCNOOC chief geologist Xu Changgui said: “Ultra-shallow gas reservoirs are important sources of hydrocarbon in deep waters. However, you must overcome world-class challenges to explore and develop the reservoirs.
“CNOOC has adopted new exploration concepts on the formation mechanism and new technological approaches to tackle the challenges. The successful discovery of Lingshui 36-1 has opened up the new area of exploration for gas resources in ultra-deep-water, ultra-shallow plays.”
CNOOC CEO and president Zhou Xinhuai said: “The newly discovered ultra-deepwater, ultra-shallow gas field is an important composition of the trillion-cubic-metres gas region in the South China Sea. The completion of the trillion-cubic-metres gas region embodies the enormous achievements CNOOC has accomplished in the South China Sea in the past 40 years.”
In addition to the Lingshui 36-1 field, CNOOC reported a new productivity record last month at the Mesozoic buried hill in the Longkou 7-1 oilfield in Bohai Bay.
Exploration well LK7-1-1, with a depth of around 4,400m, revealed 76m of oil and gas pay zones.
This well in the Longkou 7-1 oilfield, situated in the eastern region of Bohai Bay with an average water depth of 26m, produced approximately 210m³ of crude oil and nearly one million cubic metres of natural gas daily.
