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Super-sized Offshore Oilfield Starts Production
Qinhuangdao 32-6 oilfield, with over 170 million tons of verified geological oil reserves, has gone into production after the recent completion of its first phase of construction.
Qinhuangdao 32-6 was discovered in 1995 by a Chinese company in the center of Bohai Bay, north China. It is the second oilfield ever found with reserves of more than 100 million tons in the bay after the Suizhong 36-1 oilfield, which is able to produce over four million tons of oil annually at present.
The Qinhuangdao 32-6 is about 130 km. east of Tanggu in Tianjin, a port city in the region. The oilfield has a 44-sq km. oil- bearing area with a water depth of some 20 meters.
Once the second and third phases are finished in 2002, the oilfield is expected to reach an annual crude oil output of 4.5 million tons.
The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Ltd. is now working with British Petroleum (BP) and Texaco of the U.S. in prospecting Qinhuangdao 32-6.
The cooperation will last for 20 years. The Chinese side will be responsible for 51 percent of the financing for exploration, with the remainder being covered by the two foreign companies.
Along with other large oilfields in the Bohai Sea, such as the Suizhong 36-1 and the Penglai 19-3, which is the largest offshore oilfield in China, Qinhuangdao 32-6 will help to realize China's goal of producing 20 million tons of crude oil there by 2005.
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