First discovered in very deep water – Executive Digest

China has confirmed the discovery of an important gas field in the South China Sea, according to Chinese state media: The field, called Lingshui 36-1, is estimated to contain more than 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas and is the first “gas field” in ultra-shallow and ultra-deep water” in the world, China’s official News Agency ‘Xinhua’ said.

This play on words makes sense: the gas field is located in extremely deep water, i.e. at a depth of more than 1.5 kilometers. However, once this deep seabed is reached, pockets of gas are found on the ‘floor’ of the same bed, which is why it is considered ‘surface’. “The field will have the capacity to produce more than 10 million cubic meters of natural gas per day in open flow,” CNOOC said.

The discovery was announced last June by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), and the discovery was reviewed and recorded by state authorities last Wednesday, the South China publication said: The exact location of the report was not specified. In rural areas, it is found in waters southeast of China’s southern island province of Hainan.

However, the area where the gas field is located is disputed: China claims almost the entire South China Sea along the “nine-dash line,” while Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims. Tensions are often exacerbated by mutual efforts to explore and develop oil and gas in disputed waters. The field adds to the geological reserves of natural gas discovered by China in the rich South China Sea and the coastal basins of Hainan Island and the mouth of the Pearl River, which exceed one billion cubic meters in volume.

China is the world’s largest importer of natural gas — it will spend about US$64.3 billion on 120 million tons in 2023 — so the country values ​​these reserve discoveries as a step forward for its energy security.

However, oil and gas development in the South China Sea faces diplomatic and political risks: in 2014, the operation of CNOOC’s Ocean Oil-981 oil platform in a disputed area near the Paracel Islands sparked widespread anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam.

Beijing claims all of the South China Sea islands as its own, which overlap with the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones, as indicated by international law, of countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. These waters form a strategic area through which one-third of world trade flows and are home to important fisheries and energy resources.