CNOOC prepares to increase the cost of mining in the “first year of deepwater”

After CNOOC proposed to strengthen self-operated deep-water exploration at the beginning of this year, China Oilfield Services Co., Ltd. also followed suit to prepare for the “Deepwater First Year”.

As the largest oilfield service provider in China, China National Offshore Oil Service Co., Ltd., for the first time in its work conference held at the beginning of this month, took “promotion of deepwater” as the focus of its annual work deployment.

It is understood that the construction of deep-water equipment for the construction of COSL in 2012 will be put into operation within the year. The “Hangzhou Shiyou 981”, which has received much attention, will also be drilled in the first quarter of this year. COSL will fully enter the operational management stage of deep-water operations.

According to insiders of the COSL, the timing of the specific drilling and final production of the “Ocean Oil 981” cannot be determined for the time being. Apart from the many uncertainties inherent in the deep sea exploration itself, CNOOC Limited’s specific operations should be coordinated. In order to prepare for the “Year of the Deepwater”, COSL has systematically formulated a deepwater development plan.

The exploration of deep-sea crude oil has greatly increased the requirements for China Oilfield Services. The research report issued by Shenyin Wanguo Securities Research Institute pointed out that the ratio of onshore, shallow sea, and deep sea is about 1:10:100 for the same drilling cost of an exploration well. In addition, the requirements for other technical services in deep sea oil fields also have Quality improvement. However, due to the huge reserves of deep-water oil and gas, it is expected that the cost will be evenly distributed to each barrel of crude oil, which still has strong economic development value.

Zhou Xiujie, a researcher in the energy industry of China Investment Advisors Co., Ltd., said that “the difficulties and tests faced by deep sea oil exploration are obviously much higher than offshore oil exploitation.” COSL is currently in the early stage of development in deep sea oil exploitation, and relevant experience still needs to be further accumulated. The efforts are far more than offshore.

In addition to the internal causes of the COSL, unstable external factors may also constrain its deep-water strategy. The recent deep-sea operating areas of COSL may be located mainly in the South China Sea. Lin Boqiang, director of the China Energy Economic Research Center at Xiamen University, said that the deep-sea oil and gas development by Chinese companies is not only due to the large gap in technology and equipment, but also the complexity of international political factors. What a single company can decide.

The CICC research report pointed out that for CNOOC, "Haiyang Petroleum 981" may not make significant contribution to the profitability in the near and medium term; in addition, the commissioning of the new drilling vessel of COSL and the overseas market operation may also result in increased pressure on costs. Big, the profit rate dropped.