China’s first offshore platform designed to inject carbon dioxide to boost natural gas recovery under construction at the Dongfang 1-1 gasfield. Photo: CCTV News

China has completed the main structure of its first offshore platform designed to inject carbon dioxide to boost natural gas recovery, CCTV News reported, citing China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The new central platform at the Dongfang 1-1 gasfield has entered the commissioning stage. Once fully operational, the project is designed to store more than 1 million tons of CO2 annually in geological formations beneath the seabed, supporting efforts to cut emissions from offshore energy production.

The platform will capture and purify CO2 produced alongside natural gas, then pressurize and reinject it underground. The process is designed to improve the recovery of gas that is difficult to extract while permanently storing the CO2, according to the report.

Weighing nearly 17,000 tons, the platform stands taller than a 28-story building. Its decks cover more than 10,000 square meters, equivalent to nearly 22 standard basketball courts.

Dongfang 1-1, China's first independently operated offshore gasfield, has produced more than 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas since entering production in 2003. It is also a representative example of the country's offshore gasfields with high CO2 content.

As the field enters the mid-to-late stages of development, gas output is declining while the proportion of CO2 in the produced gas is rising. These conditions provide an opportunity to put CO2 injection technology into practice, the report said.

The project will mark China's first large-scale offshore application of CO2 injection for enhanced gas recovery. It is expected to support the development of an offshore carbon storage industry and expand the resource utilization of captured CO2, according to CCTV News.

Global Times