China finds oil, gas field in Beibu Gulf

BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), one of the country's oil giants, announced on Thursday that it has made a major breakthrough in the exploration of oil and gas in the Beibu Gulf Basin, having identified an oil and gas pay zone in its Weizhou 10-5 field.

The Weizhou 10-5 oil and gas field is located in the Beibu Gulf of the South China Sea, with an average water depth of about 37 meters. An exploration well with a depth of 4,840 meters was drilled, CNOOC said.

The test results indicated that the well can produce approximately 370,000 cubic meters of natural gas and 102 tonnes of crude oil per day, making it the first oil and gas discovery in the granite buried hills in the Beibu Gulf Basin.

The company has discovered large and medium-sized oil and gas fields in recent years in various types of buried hills offshore China, said CNOOC's CEO Zhou Xinhuai, adding that the discovery in the Beibu Gulf Basin will further help ensure the stable supply of oil and gas resources.