A picture of Offshore Oil 981, taken on May 23 when the deep-sea drilling platform was named. Photo: CFP
China has been speeding up construction of deep-sea oil drilling platforms and expects to be capable of reaching more energy resources lying under the South China Sea as soon as this fall.
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the State-owned enterprise in charge of building the country's first deep-sea oil drilling platform, Offshore Oil 981, is now busy testing the platform in the East China Sea and preparing for its maiden voyage to the South China Sea within the year, Beijing-based Oriental Outlook magazine reported.
The 30,000-ton drilling platform can go to a depth of 3,000 meters for oil exploitation and its drills can reach as deep as 12,000 meters. China is currently only able to drill for oil in waters no deeper than 500 meters, according to the CNOOC website.
Dubbed the "Offshore Oil Aircraft Carrier" by the media, the giant platform is part of CNOOC's 15 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) plan to build a comprehensive deep-sea oil drilling system, which will include a floating crane and other supporting devices, the CNOOC website said.
"Deep-sea oil drilling devices are our moving territory and are essential for realizing our offshore oil exploitation strategy," Wang Yilin, chairman of CNOOC, said at the platform's naming ceremony on May 23.
After leaving Shanghai for the East China Sea in late May, Offshore Oil 981 has been testing its functions and conducting trial operations before heading to the South China Sea for the first time this fall, the report said.
Short-armed giant
Before the construction of Offshore Oil 981, China could only watch as neighboring countries procured oil and other natural resources from Chinese territory in the South China Sea by renting deep-sea oil exploitation devices from Western countries.
"Even if China planned to exploit oil in the South China Sea, the lack of drilling equipment was a fatal shortage in realizing the goal," said Kang Jianxun, automation engineering director of CNOOC's deep-sea drilling program, according to the report.
Some 410,000 square kilometers of the South China Sea have been found to contain oil and gas resources. The Nansha Islands alone have 20 billion tons of oil, Beijing-based China Energy News reported.
"It is urgent for China to enter the South China Sea for oil exploitation, when neighboring countries are already aware of the benefit of taking oil and gas from Chinese territory," Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times Thursday.
According to Lin, Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia are all drilling for oil resources in areas in the South China Sea, where China claims sovereignty.
China's neighboring countries take 20 million tons of oil from Chinese territory in the South China Sea every year, said Song Enlai, chairman of the CNOOC supervisory board.
While CNOOC claims that China will finally not have to rely on other countries to exploit deep-sea oil resources after Offshore Oil 981 goes into operation, the Oriental Outlook magazine report said that CNOOC equipped the platform with core devices made overseas.
"We can depend on our own scientific research to develop deep-sea oil drilling technologies, but given the situation where we urgently have to enter the South China Sea for oil exploitation, buying foreign parts for the platform is understandable," Lin said.
"The deep-sea drilling platform gives China an opportunity to at least stand at the same position with its neighboring countries in resources exploitation in the South China Sea," Lin added.
Overseas plans
China's first deep-sea gas field, Liwan 3-1, is currently under construction at a depth of 1,500 meters in the eastern South China Sea, and will be ready to conduct drilling operations in 2013, CNOOC said.
"China will build its second and third deep-sea oil drilling platforms to constantly support the country's deep-sea oil exploitation," Jin Xiaojian, general manager of CNOOC's engineering and construction department, told the Beijing-based Economic Information Daily.
In addition to its ambitions to conquer difficulties in deep-sea oil drilling in the South China Sea, CNOOC also has its sights set on operating its high-end drilling devices overseas, as the company has bought several offshore oil and gas fields in South America, the Oriental Outlook magazine report said.
However, an oil spill accident at CNOOC's offshore oil field in the Bohai Sea and another fire at a CNOOC refinery in Guangdong Province this week led to public concerns over whether the company really has the capacity to safely conduct oil drilling in the South China Sea.
"As far as the offshore oil industry goes, the biggest problem is still environmental pollution, which poses a serious a challenge for CNOOC as it seeks to go further into the South China Sea," Lin said.
Offshore Oil 981 uses the most up-to-date technology, which automatically closes off oil well exits to prevent oil spills, according to the CNOOC website.
"CNOOC needs to reevaluate the security of its whole drilling and operation system in both shallow and deep waters, and make sure oil spill accidents will not happen if the company starts to operate in the South China Sea," Lin said.