China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, has begun producing oil at the smallest offshore oilfield China has discovered, company sources said on Tuesday.

 

"The move shows that China has edged to the forefront of the globe in cost-effective offshore oil exploration technology," said Zhou Shouwei, deputy general manager of CNOOC.

 

It is widely considered that the smaller an oilfield is, the more difficult it is to explore it. Industry experts believe that if an offshore oilfield has a workable reserve of less than 3 million cubic meters, it is too costly to be explored.

 

Dubbed Bozhong 34-5, the small oilfield has a workable reserve of only 1.8 million cubic meters, according to Zhou.

 

Founded in 1982, the CNOOC has built 51 oilfields and gas fields and has been listed on the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges.

 

Last year, the CNOOC produced 40.33 million tons of oil equivalent compared with 90,000 tons in 1982. Its annual sales income reached 120.8 billion yuan (US$15.7 billion), as against 394 million yuan (US$51.2 million) 25 years ago.

 

CNOOC's output is expected to reach 100 million tons of oil equivalent by 2010.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2007)