(Yicai Global) Oct. 20 -- Energy giant China National Offshore Oil Corporation said it has discovered the country’s first large deepwater gas field with proven reserves of more than 50 billion cubic meters. 

Baodao 21-1 is located in waters southwest of Hainan island at a depth of more than 1,500 meters, with extremely complex marine geological conditions, CNOOC said yesterday.

Exploratory drilling found a 113-meter gas layer, a record for a single deepwater well, and showed that the field has potential daily output of 587,000 cbm of natural gas. 

CNOOC will ramp up exploration and development of natural gas in the waters around Hainan and step up the pace of deep-sea undertakings, said Zhou Xinhuai, deputy general manager of the Beijing-based firm. 

Baodao 21-1 is located about 150 kilometers from Deep Sea No.1, the deepest gas field independently developed by China. The latter has supplied more than 3 billion cbm of gas since it started production in June last year.

CNOOC’s announcement came a day after Sinopec said it had discovered shale gas in the Sichuan Basin in southwest China with a daily output of 258,600 cubic meters. The Cambrian strata in the basin has evaluated reserves of 387.8 billion cbm and as such has huge potential.

China’s natural gas production has increased by more than 10 billion cbm a year over the last five years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. In the first eight months of this year, output rose 5.5 percent to 143.7 billion cbm from a year earlier, NBS data showed. That is likely to reach 220 billion cbm this year, the National Energy Administration and Ministry of Natural Resources have predicted.

China's energy self-sufficiency remains above 80 percent, and it has effectively dealt with the transmission impact of international energy price volatility, NEA Deputy Director Ren Jingdong said at a press conference on Oct. 17.

Editor: Martin Kadiev