Sinopec Appraisal Well in South China Sea Yields High Oil and Gas Flows

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, has said that it struck high oil and gas flows from an exploration well in the South China Sea.

Sinopec’s subsidiary Shanghai Offshore Petroleum Company (SHOPC) has tested the Hai 3 well test in the Weixi exploration area in the Beibu Gulf Basin in the South China Sea, and found that oil and gas output was very promising.  

SHOPC says the daily flow rate is a record-high for oil and gas production in Beibu Gulf’s Haizhong Depression, part of the Weizhou oilfield, Offshore Energy reports.

Sinopec has been more active in onshore exploration and production, but it has recently boosted offshore exploration efforts, too, as Chinese state-held giants seek to raise domestic oil and gas resources and production.

At the end of last year, Sinopec launched oil and gas production from the deepest onshore well in Asia. The Yuejin 3-3XC well of Sinopec’s Project Deep Earth NO.1 in the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, is 9,432 meters (30,945 ft) deep-a new record set for the deepest onshore well in Asia.

More recently, another major state-held oil and gas giant, CNOOC, launched last month crude oil production from a new development project in the South China Sea.

CNOOC, which specializes in offshore exploration and production in China and abroad, announced the start of the Enping 21-4 Oilfield Development Project in the eastern South China Sea, which is expected to reach peak production of approximately 5,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) of light crude oil in 2025.

CNOOC boosted its 2023 oil and gas production to a record-high of 678 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), above the 650 million boe guidance, the Chinese company said in March.

Since the beginning of this year, CNOOC has announced two major oil discoveries offshore China.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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