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China becomes first country to explore deep-water oil in South China Sea | China's first deep-water drilling rig started operations
in the South China Sea at 9:38:a.m. on Wednesday, marking "a substantial step"
by the country's deep-sea oil industry. The sixth-generation semi-submersible
CNOOC 981, owned by China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), began drilling in a sea area 320 km southeast of Hong Kong at a water depth of 1,500 metres. It is the first independent deep-water oil drilling to be conducted by a Chinese
company, and China is the first country to explore deep-water oil and gas resources
in the South China Sea. "Large deep-water drilling rigs are our mobile national
territory and strategic weapon for promoting the development of the country's
offshore oil industry," said CNOOC Chairman Wang Yilin, adding that the drilling
would contribute to ensuring the country's energy security and sovereign right
over territorial waters. Wednesday's drilling is the first step for oil and gas
exploration in the 25-square-km deep-water region. The rig will complete drilling
at a depth of 2,335 meters to reach an estimated 30 billion cubic meters of natural
gas, said Shi Hesheng, a geological engineer with CNOOC's Shenzhen subsidiary.
"In a long-term vision, more than 700 million tonnes of oil resources and 1.2
trillion cubic meters of natural gas resources will be found in this area. There
are a dozen such areas in the northern part of the South China Sea ," Shi said.
Depths greater than 300 meters are internationally recognized as deep waters and
those greater than 1,500 meters are ultra-deep waters. Globally, 30 to 40 percent
of marine resources are buried in deep waters and about half of major exploration
sites are developed offshore. The South China Sea is estimated to have 23 billion
tonnes to 30 billion tonnes of oil and 16 trillion cubic meters of natural gas,
accounting for one-third of China 's total oil and gas resources. About 70 percent
of oil and gas reserves in the resource-rich South China Sea is contained in 1.54
million square km of deep-water regions. "The South China Sea has the potential
to become the world's fourth-largest deep-water drilling region, after the so-called
'Golden Triangle' of the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and West Africa," said Zhou Shouwei,
a member of Chinese Academy of Engineering. Subject to a lack of key technologies,
most of China 's current offshore oil exploration is conducted less than 300 meters
below the surface. The drilling at CNOOC 981 is a historic milestone in the country's
deep-water oil and gas exploration efforts, said Lin Boqiang, director of the
China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University . "It will reduce
China 's oil imports and boost the development of the country's deep-water exploration
technologies and equipment," Lin said. Oil and gas consumption has soared in China
amid the country's rapid economic growth and industrialization process. The country
relies on imports for more than 55 percent of crude oil and 20 percent of natural
gas. Its appetite is expected to grow in the future. To ease mounting pressure,
China has invested huge human and material resources to move its oil drilling
into deep waters. It took 6 billion yuan (952 million U.S. dollars) and more than
three years for China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSC), the contractor, to build
the CNOOC 981 rig for CNOOC. The platform is 114 meters long, 90 meters wide and
137.8 meters high, and weighs 31,000 tonnes. With a deck the size of a standard
football field, the rig is capable of undertaking an offshore operation at a maximum
water depth of 3,000 meters and drilling a depth of 12,000 meters, according to
CSSC. Equipped with third-generation dynamic and global positioning systems, the
CNOOC 981 can withstand vibrations brought by "once-in-two-centuries storms."
Its underwater blow-out prevention system can efficiently prevent accidents like
the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico , experts said.
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