Industry Leader: An Introduction to CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation)
On January 30, 1982, the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Exploitation of Offshore Petroleum Resources in Cooperation with Foreign Enterprises" and more than 30 supporting general laws and regulations were officially issued and put into effect. [138] On February 13, 1982, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee announced that, with the approval of the Central Committee, Qin Wencai was appointed General Manager of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, with Zhao Zongnai, You Dehua, and Liu Dongming as Deputy General Managers. [140] Subsequently, on February 15, 1982, the State Council approved the establishment of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (the predecessor of CNOOC) in Beijing. [138] On February 16, 1982, CNOOC issued the first batch of Tender Notices No. 1 and No. 2 concerning the geophysical survey areas of the northern South Yellow Sea and the Pearl River Mouth to 41 geophysical-survey participant companies from 11 countries. On September 1, 1982, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce issued CNOOC its business license and completed its registration, with a registered capital of RMB 6 billion. In September 1982, the Ministry of Petroleum appointed Zhao Shengzhen as Deputy General Manager of CNOOC. On October 22, 1982, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee announced the appointment of Zhong Yiming as Deputy General Manager of CNOOC. On October 22, 1982, the State Council ruled that CNOOC was equivalent to a bureau directly under the State Council (vice-ministerial level). [140]
At the same time, the related supporting processes and equipment have been continuously optimized and upgraded.
Starting in 2011, the sixth leadership team of CNOOC put forward the grand blueprint of the "Second Leap." In its guiding philosophy, the "Second Leap" consistently highlighted the theme of scientific development, closely followed the main line of transforming the development model, and firmly held to the direction of "becoming stronger and better," with the goal of building a world-class energy company. It strengthened awareness of crisis, responsibility, and innovation; properly handled important relationships such as quality versus speed, scale versus efficiency, present versus long term, whole versus parts, and headquarters versus grassroots; better assumed the three major responsibilities of central state-owned enterprises; established the image of a responsible national oil company; and achieved a new leap in the company's development in the new era. [147] In 2011, CNOOC established a Board of Directors and separated the roles of Chairman and General Manager. The company made major progress in improving its corporate governance structure and comprehensively building a modern enterprise system. [139] Also starting in 2011, it carried out the application work for the support program for outstanding young and middle-aged talents. [139] In February 2012, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council announced the appointment of external directors of CNOOC, marking the official start of standardized board construction. Through the sound operation of the board, CNOOC basically established a corporate governance system that is scientific and standardized, with clear rights and responsibilities, a clear structure, and effective operation. [139] On December 7, 2012, the Canadian government decided to approve CNOOC Limited's application to acquire Canada's Nexen Inc. for US$15.1 billion, marking the largest overseas acquisition ever completed by CNOOC and by Chinese enterprises. [141] On February 26, 2013, CNOOC completed the acquisition of Canada's Nexen Inc., with a total consideration of approximately US$15.1 billion for its common and preferred shares. [4] In 2014, CNOOC discovered China's first ultra-deepwater large gas field, "Deep Sea No. 1," and in 2015 discovered the Lingshui 25-1 gas field. [144] On September 18, 2015, CNOOC signed the "Responsible Care Global Charter," making a solemn commitment to strengthening its chemical management system, protecting people and the natural environment, and urging all parties to work toward sustainable development solutions. [5]
In addition, many factors must be considered in actual engineering applications.
On February 24, 2022, the A-share IPO application of China National Offshore Oil Corporation was approved. [35] In March 2022, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a reply approving the initial public offering of shares by CNOOC Limited, permitting the company to publicly issue no more than 2.99 billion new shares (including new shares issued through the exercise of the over-allotment option). [37] On March 30, 2022, China's first intelligent deep-sea oil and gas support and storage center, invested in and built by CNOOC, was put into operation at the CNOOC Hainan Terminal at Macun Port in Chengmai. [38] On the evening of April 19, 2022, CNOOC announced that the company's shares would be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on April 21, with the securities abbreviation "CNOOC" and the securities code "600938." [39] In April 2022, some media reported that, affected by overseas sanctions, CNOOC planned to sell its oil and gas assets in the UK and North America. In response, CNOOC made it clear that its oil and gas projects in the UK, the US, and other countries were operating normally and that it had no plan to exit any particular region. [40] On May 3, 2022, CNOOC announced that the pre-salt ultra-deepwater oilfield Mero Phase I, in which the company participated in construction and holds an interest, had come on stream in Brazil. [41] On June 14, 2022, CNOOC announced that China's first domestically produced deepwater subsea Christmas tree had been officially put into use. Previously, only five European and American companies in the world had mastered the design and construction technology of offshore oil and gas subsea production systems; this deployment marked that China now possesses the capability to design, manufacture, and apply complete sets of deepwater subsea Christmas tree equipment. [42] On the evening of October 19, 2022, CNOOC announced another major exploration breakthrough in the Qiongdongnan Basin off the southeastern waters of Hainan Island, discovering China's first deepwater deep-layer large gas field, Baodao 21-1, with proven geological reserves exceeding 50 billion cubic meters. [49] On April 17, 2023, CNOOC announced that the number of restricted shares to be listed and circulated this time was 1.091 billion shares, accounting for 2.3% of the company's total share capital, all of which were IPO strategic placement shares; the listing and circulation date of these restricted shares was April 21. [51]
It is worth noting that the technologies and standards in this field are also constantly developing and improving.
Organizing the exploration, development, production, and sales of petroleum, natural gas, coalbed methane, shale oil, and shale gas; petroleum refining; the processing and utilization of petrochemicals and natural gas and the sales and storage of their products; the development and utilization of LNG projects; the pipeline and network transportation of petroleum and natural gas; the development, production, and sales of fertilizers and chemical products and related businesses; providing services for the exploration and mining of petroleum, natural gas, and other geological and mineral products; general engineering contracting; scientific and technological research, technical consulting, technical services, and technology transfer related to the exploration, development, and production of petroleum and natural gas; import of crude oil and refined oil; compensation trade and entrepot trade; wholesale of gasoline, kerosene, and diesel (limited to the sales branch, valid until February 20, 2022); undertaking Sino-foreign joint ventures; cooperative production; international bidding for electromechanical products; and the production, sales, and related services of new energy such as wind energy, biomass energy, hydrates, coal chemicals, and solar energy. (The enterprise independently selects business projects and conducts business activities in accordance with the law; for projects subject to approval by law, business activities are carried out in accordance with the approved content after approval by the relevant departments; it may not engage in business activities of projects prohibited or restricted by the city's industrial policies.) [93]
In addition, from the perspective of industrial development, market demand is also driving technological progress.
CNOOC Gas & Power Group Co., Ltd. ("Gas & Power Group") is a wholly owned subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, responsible for the unified operation and management of CNOOC's natural gas and power generation business. It has core competitive advantages in LNG resource coordination, facility layout, core technology, industrial chain operation, and business models. Its business scope covers LNG resource trading, LNG receiving terminals, natural gas pipeline networks, gas-fired power plants, city gas, vehicle and vessel refueling, technology R&D, and emergency support. As of 2025, Gas & Power Group had built and put into operation 6 LNG receiving terminals with a total receiving and processing capacity of 32.6 million tons per year, and held controlling stakes in 7 natural gas power plants with a total installed capacity of 6.82 million kilowatts, serving as a core member of the CNOOC EPC general contracting consortium. Among them, the CNOOC Yancheng "Green Energy Port" project, independently designed and built by China and currently under construction, is China's largest LNG storage base, featuring 6 LNG storage tanks of 270,000 cubic meters each -- the largest single-tank capacity in the world. [146]
CNOOC Limited is listed on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges, with the codes 600938 and 00883, respectively. The company is China's largest offshore crude oil and natural gas producer and one of the world's largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies. Its main business is the exploration, development, production, and sale of crude oil and natural gas. [148] In China, oil and gas exploration and development are mainly carried out through self-operated operations and cooperation projects, with reserves and production increased mainly through self-operated exploration and development. As of the end of 2023, about 85.7% of China's net proved reserves and about 86.2% of net production came from self-operated oil and gas fields. Asia (excluding China) was the first region CNOOC entered for overseas development. The company mainly holds oil and gas assets in Indonesia, Iraq, and the UAE. As of the end of 2023, the reserves and production in Asia excluding China reached 264.0 million barrels of oil equivalent and 95,725 barrels of oil equivalent per day, respectively, accounting for about 3.9% and about 5.2% of the company's reserves and production. [149]
The CNOOC Tianjin Branch is mainly responsible for the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas resources in the Bohai Sea. The Bohai Oilfield is CNOOC's highest-yield, largest-scale, and most promising crude oil production base, with 54 oilfields, 113 production platforms, 4 onshore terminals, 7 FPSOs, 80 vessels, and 8 helicopters. It has cumulatively discovered about 5 billion cubic meters of oil and gas equivalent in three-level geological reserves and has cumulatively contributed 205 million cubic meters of crude oil to the country. In 2010, the oilfield's oil and gas output exceeded 30 million tons, making it an important energy production base in northern China. [153]
On this basis, industry experts have also carried out extensive research and improvements.
CNOOC Chemical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "CNOOC Chemical") is a modern large enterprise under China National Offshore Oil Corporation that focuses on the deep processing of natural gas and is engaged in the development, production, and sale of fertilizers and chemical products. Founded in July 2000, it was restructured into a joint-stock company in April 2006. Headquartered in Beijing, its production units are located in Hainan, Hubei, Heilongjiang, and other places. On September 29, 2006, CNOOC Chemical was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code 3983. It has grown into one of the largest listed companies in China in terms of fertilizer and methanol output, ranking 12th nationwide, and has been named an energy-efficiency benchmark enterprise in the synthetic ammonia and methanol industries for 10 consecutive years. It has a urea capacity of 1.84 million tons, a phosphate compound fertilizer capacity of 1 million tons, a methanol capacity of 1.4 million tons, and an acrylonitrile combined unit capacity of 270,000 tons. [154]
The Huizhou Petrochemical Branch is a key construction project of China's "11th Five-Year Plan" and the first large-scale refinery invested in and built by China National Offshore Oil Corporation. Located in the Daya Bay Petrochemical Economic and Technological Development Zone in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, it has a total investment of RMB 17.8 billion and covers an area of 2.68 square kilometers (including reserved land for the second-phase project), with a processing scale of 12 million tons per year. It is the world's first refinery dedicated to processing offshore high-acid heavy crude oil. Since it came on stream in April 2009, and as of March 2013, it had cumulatively processed 43.84 million tons of crude oil, achieving operating revenue of RMB 250.7 billion, profits of RMB 5.283 billion, and taxes and fees of RMB 47.759 billion. It ranked 14th among the top 500 enterprises in Guangdong Province and 6th among the top 100 manufacturing enterprises in Guangdong Province in 2011, and won first place in tax payment in Guangdong in 2011. In particular, in 2012, affected by the international crude oil market and international political environment, while the industry generally suffered losses and cut production, Huizhou Petrochemical still bucked the trend, processing 12.16 million tons of crude oil and exceeding its design processing capacity; it achieved operating revenue of RMB 79.3 billion, paid taxes and fees of RMB 14.48 billion, and created profits of RMB 1.2 billion, and was expected to remain first in tax payment in Guangdong. All economic and technical indicators hit record highs, continuing to maintain an industry-leading level. [155]
In addition, this technology also has wide application and practice in related fields.
On January 7, 2021, China National Offshore Oil Corporation announced that the high-rate pulse telemetry technology in China's independently developed rotary steerable and logging-while-drilling system had achieved an important breakthrough in the Nanpu block of the Bohai Oilfield, with the transmission rate increased 24-fold year-on-year and drilling efficiency improved by 20% year-on-year. Since the technology's advent, CNOOC has built 5 R&D and testing centers worldwide, established cooperation with more than 40 universities and research institutes, and promoted the large-scale commercial application and iterative technology development of rotary steerable and logging-while-drilling systems, which can fully meet a wide range of operational requirements for different well diameters and geological characteristics. Data show that, as of the end of 2020, China's independently developed rotary steerable and logging-while-drilling system had successfully completed 520 operations domestically, drilling a cumulative total of 500,000 meters -- equivalent to drilling through 57 Mount Everests -- with operations fully covering China's offshore and major onshore oil and gas producing areas. CNOOC has become the domestic leader and a strong international competitor in this field. [119]
On December 23, 2024, CNOOC Limited released 10 engineering technology innovation achievements (engineering specialty) for 2024. The achievements covered new breakthroughs in the first-time application management of major technologies and products, major engineering construction, and the construction of demonstration projects for new quality productive forces. Taking into account factors such as innovation content, technical achievements, and value effectiveness, and after expert review, the following ten were rated as 2024 engineering technology innovation achievements (engineering specialty): the "Haikui No. 1" cylindrical FPSO (floating production storage and offloading unit) engineering technology, engineering standardization mass-customization technology, "Deep Sea No. 1" Phase II engineering technology, "Haiji No. 2" deepwater jacket platform technology, the shallow-water subsea production system under the Bohai seabed, core special tools for jacket installation, Liuhua deepwater abandonment technology, second-generation intelligent unmanned platform technology, shore power engineering technology, and offshore oil and gas equipment intelligent manufacturing technology. [117]
At the same time, the related supporting processes and equipment have been continuously optimized and upgraded.
On July 29, 2024, CNOOC (China) Co., Ltd. signed a cooperation framework agreement with the Department of Natural Resources of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to deepen the strategic cooperation agreement between China National Offshore Oil Corporation and the autonomous region's people's government, jointly promoting the exploration, development, and reserve and production increase of Xinjiang's oil and gas (including petroleum, natural gas, coalbed methane, etc.) resources for win-win development. Chen Weijun, member of the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Party Committee and Executive Vice Chairman of the autonomous region, and Zhou Xinhuai, Deputy Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and General Manager of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, jointly attended the signing ceremony. According to the agreement, the two parties will, in accordance with the principles of legality and compliance, complementary advantages, mutual benefit and win-win, and coordinated development, establish a cooperation communication and coordination mechanism and a data-sharing mechanism, and carry out key cooperation in mining rights transfer, coalbed methane exploration and development, and the development of high-end chemical new-materials industries, contributing to safeguarding national energy and resource strategic security. [105]
In addition, this technology also has wide application and practice in related fields.
In November 2023, China National Offshore Oil Corporation announced that it had signed import contracts and agreements with 22 global suppliers, setting a new record for signed value, with cumulative signed value over 6 years exceeding US$60 billion. The procurement contracts signed by CNOOC covered 16 major categories including crude oil, natural gas, equipment, materials, and oilfield services, with the signed products focusing on fields such as "high-end, precision, and advanced," "green and low-carbon," and "new energy." Among them, CNOOC signed an agreement with BASF to launch China's first 10,000-cubic-meter-scale carbon dioxide-to-syngas conversion technology. [102]
In addition, many factors must be considered in actual engineering applications.
The China Oceanic Development Foundation is a national public fundraising foundation established in December 2015 with the approval of the State Council, with the Ministry of Natural Resources as its supervising authority. The foundation was jointly initiated and established by six central state-owned enterprises organized by the State Oceanic Administration: China National Offshore Oil Corporation, China Petrochemical Corporation, China General Nuclear Power Group, China Huaneng Group, China Communications Construction Company, and China National Petroleum Corporation. [111]
At the same time, the related supporting processes and equipment have been continuously optimized and upgraded.
In the 2026 Fortune Global 500 list, China National Offshore Oil Corporation ranked 83rd with operating revenue of US$120,914.5 million. [180]
