CNOOC commissions China’s first offshore CCS demo project

CHINESE oil and gas company CNOOC has announced that a carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project at the Enping 15-1 oilfield development has officially started operating. The project is the first of its kind in the country, the firm said. 

Located in the Pearl River Mouth Basin about 190 km southwest of Hong Kong in the eastern part of the South China Sea, the demonstration is designed to process CO2 captured at the oilfield, that will then be injected into a saline water layer at a depth of around 800 m for storage. 

Once operational, the project will accumulatively store more than 1.5m t of CO2. 

Zhou Xinhuai, CEO of CNOOC, said: "The successful commissioning of the CCS demonstration project in the Enping 15-1 oilfield will effectively promote CNOOC's increase in reserves and production as well as green and low-carbon development. The company will continue to increase research and tackle key problems, and continue to promote green development of offshore oil and gas fields and actively explore 'onshore carbon into the sea', to open up a new path of carbon reduction and environmental protection for coastal high-emission enterprises." 

Enping 15-1

Enping 15-1 is one of four oilfields (15-1, 10-2, 15-2, 20-4) owned by CNOOC. The firm commenced production from the Enping oilfield cluster in December 2022, and plans to commission 48 production wells. Peak production of 35,500 bbl/d of crude oil is expected in 2024.  

The oilfield project’s facilities include two drilling production platforms and one remote-controlled, unmanned wellhead platform that can function during severe weather conditions such as typhoons.  

Like the CCS project, according to CNOOC, this is the first unmanned offshore oil rig in the South China Sea.