China’s top offshore crude oil and natural gas producer, CNOOC Ltd., has gone ahead and announced the discovery of a major new oilfield in the Bohai Sea.
It is worth noting that the Qinhuangdao 29-6 discovery in the shallow Neogene formations of the Bohai Sea is another oilfield that is estimated to hold over 100 million tons of crude, or almost 730 million barrels, and has been discovered by CNOOC recently, the company went on to confirm.
Via continuous exploration, the proved in-place volume when it comes to the Qinhuangdao 29-6 Oilfield has surpassed 100 million tons of oil equivalent.
The new oilfield in the Bohai Sea is indeed a major new discovery in medium-heavy crude, the Chinese major went on to add.
Apparently, the Qinhuangdao 29-6 Oilfield is the second one-hundred-million-ton-class lithological oilfield that has been discovered in the mature exploration area of Shijiutuo Uplift, CNOOC added. This further underscores the value of exploration and also consolidates the resource base for the ever-growing reserves and production of CNOOC, as per the company.
Interestingly, in the middle of 2025, CNOOC went ahead and launched the production of heavy crude from its Kenli 10-2 Oilfields Development Project, which apparently is the largest shallow lithological oilfield offshore China.
The project located in the southern Bohai Sea is going to see 79 development wells commissioned, inclusive of 33 cold recovery wells, 24 thermal recovery wells, 21 water injection wells, and also 1 water source well.
CNOOC anticipates the project to attain peak production of almost 19,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day – boepd in 2026.
In a similar way to what other state majors in China are doing, CNOOC is also boosting the domestic oil and gas production and also exploration as per the orders by Chinese authorities, who look to reduce the dependence of China on imported oil and gas.
CNOOC has gone ahead and managed to post record-high production in recent years, with an all-time high output in 2024, and there is another record-high that is likely to be seen in 2025.
Outside of China, CNOOC is a minority partner across numerous major offshore developments, which includes an Exxon-led consortium that has found over 11 billion barrels of oil equivalents offshore Guyana and is at present the only producing consortium that’s operational in the South American country.
