CNOOC eyes more gas fields abroad

China is eyeing more overseas opportunities for its offshore drilling and completion technologies at high-temperature and high-pressure gas fields, according to the nation's largest producer of offshore oil and gas, China National Offshore Oil Corp.

China's technological capacity to independently develop high-temperature and high-pressure gas fields is only second to that of the United States, said Li Zhong, chief engineer of CNOOC's Zhanjiang branch.

The know-how and innovation being deployed in the South China Sea, which was granted first prize in this year's National Science and Technology Awards, has been successfully applied to the HTHP gas fields at home and abroad, including eight HTHP gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico, seven in Europe's North Sea and 18 in Iraq, said Li Yanjun, chief executive engineer of HTHP drilling and completion of CNOOC's Zhanjiang branch.