China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has inked its second deepwater oil exploration contract with Husky Oil China Ltd., a subsidiary of Canada's Husky Energy Ltd. The agreement was signed Monday for work in deepwater block 29/26, in the Pearl River Mouth Basin of the eastern South China Sea.  

Zhang Guohua, senior vice president of CNOOC, said that so far the two companies have signed seven contracts in total.

Block 29/26, one of the 12 deepwater blocks offered by CNOOC in 2002 for open tender, is located about 300 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong. Covering a sea area of 3,965 square kilometers, the block has a water depth ranging from 300 to 2,000 meters.

Under the terms of the contract, Husky will fund all exploration costs and has the right to receive up to 51 percent working interest at no cost from any commercial discoveries in the block. CNOOC, a listed company in HK, acts as the operator and owns 100 percent interest in the well.

CNOOC has already drilled an appraisal well in the area. The well, in 200 meters of water, reached a depth of 3,600 meters. In a drill stem test, it produced 18.4 million cubic feet of gas per day.

(Shenzhen Daily August 18, 2004)