Updated on March 31, 2025 at 12:30 p.m.
TAIPIEI, TAIWAN – The National Offshore China Oil Corporation, or CNOOC, discovered an oil field in the Southern China Sea with proven reserves exceeding 100 million tonnes, Chinese state media announced on Monday.
The east oil field of the southern China Sea – the oil field of Huizhou 19-6 – was about 170 kilometers (106 miles) of the city of Shenzhen in the south of the Guangdong province in China, reported the Xinhua news agency.
The oil field testing, which has given daily production of 413 barrels of crude oil and 68,000 cubic meters of natural gas, he added.
RFA could not independently confirm complaints.
In a press release, CNOOC said that the discovery well had been drilled and completed at a depth of 5,415 meters – which it characterized as “ultra -pro -depth strata” – faced with high temperatures and pressures.
Xinhua quoted Peng Guangrong, geologist of the Shenzhen de Cnooc branch, saying that 60% of the reserves of oil and gas newly discovered in the world come from deep strata.
The Southern China Sea is deemed rich in hydrocarbons but remains mainly under-explored due to territorial disputes. However, most of the reserves of oil and discovery gas are found in undisputed areas, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
China’s claims almost the whole of the Southern China Sea – through which $ 3,000 billion in trade are moving each year – overlapping with allegations of sovereignty of the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Brunei. In a case carried by the Philippines, an international arbitral tribunal in 2016 invalidated the basis of the vast territorial claims of China, but Beijing ignored the decision.
Military patrol
The Chinese announcement on the oil field occurred a few days after the Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth met his Philippin counterpart Gilberto Teodoro and the Philippin President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Friday in Manila, as part of the Hegseth Asia-Pacific tour which also included Guam and Japan.
Hegseth reaffirmed Washington’s commitment “iron” to his defense treaty with the Philippines, promising to deploy advanced military capacities to strengthen deterrence against threats, including Chinese “aggression”.
“Deterrence is necessary in the world, but in particular in this region, in your country, given the threats of the Communist Chinese,” said HegSeth.
Related stories
Us to send advanced military equipment to the Philippines
The head of the Pentagon Hegseth heads towards the Philippines in the middle of the tensions of the Southern China Sea
Philippine Cent: Manila’s Defense Alliance with Washington “remains intact”
The same day, the United States, Japan and the Philippines have carried out joint naval exercises near the Highborough Highborough in the Southern China Sea to improve preparation for the crisis. A Chinese military ship would have monitored the exercises at a distance.
At one point, a Chinese frigate tried to approach the area where warships and planes of the three Allied nations made maneuvers.
However, a Filipino frigate issued a radio warning, which prompted the Chinese ship to keep its distance.
For the first time since the start of these joint naval exercises last year, known as multilateral maritime cooperative activity, a limited media group based on Manila had access to the observation of exercises at sea.
China said it also had a military patrol in the Southern China Sea on Friday.
Edited by Mike Firn.
Updated with changes throughout.