CNOOC begins heavy crude production at Kenli oilfield in Bohai

China's CNOOC said on Tuesday it has started production at the Kenli 10-2 oilfield in the Bohai Sea offshore northern China that holds an estimated 100 million tonnes, or about 730 million barrels of geological reserve.

The state oil major said the project is the largest shallow lithologic oilfield offshore China and expects peak output to reach about 19,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2026.

CNOOC holds a 100 per cent stake in the project and is the operator.

With an average water depth of 20 meters, the project includes a central platform, two wellhead platforms, with plans to drill 79 development wells. The field produces heavy crude oil.

The new production forms part of CNOOC's plan to lift total output at the broader Bohai oilfield to 40 million tonnes of oil annually.

It is one of the most complex production platforms in the Bohai region and the first large-scale thermal recovery platform for heavy oil in the southern Bohai Sea, the company added.

The Bohai oilfield produced more than 36 million tonnes, or about 720,000 barrels per day of crude in 2024, accounting for nearly one-sixth of China's total oil output and contributing more than half of the country's annual production growth, the company previously said.

(Reporting by Sam Li in Beijing and Aizhu Chen in Singapore, Editing by Louise Heavens)