Cnooc Completes Evaluation of Biggest Light-Oil Field

By Wang Ying

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Cnooc Ltd. has completed evaluation of oil and gas deposits from test wells at the biggest light- oil field in Bohai Bay, boosting the potential of increasing China's fuel reserves, the government said.

Deposits at the Jinzhou 25-1 field, off the northeastern coast, are of the ``100-million-ton class,'' the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said in a statement on its Web site, without elaborating.

Rising energy demand in the world's fourth-biggest economy is prompting state-run Cnooc to boost exploration off the coast to offset stagnant output growth in inland areas. China's biggest offshore oil producer plans to more than double production at fields in Bohai Bay in five to six years, President Chen Bi said in October last year.

More than 80 percent of reserves found in Bohai Bay are heavy oil, the commission said in today's statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Wang Ying in Beijing at ywang30@bloomberg.net;