China's first solo-operated deepwater gas field starts production

BEIJING: China's first solo-operated deepwater gas field started production on Friday, the country's national offshore producer CNOOC Ltd said.

Shenhai-1, meaning deepsea, is expected to produce up to 3.39 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas every year, or roughly 2per cent of China's total gas output, the energy major said on its official Weibo account.

The deepsea gas project, built in the Lingshui 17-2 gas field in the South China Seas, will bring CNOOC's total gas production capacity in the sea area to more than 13 billion cubic meters annually, according to the company.

Shenhai-1 is part of CNOOC's plan to significantly increase its gas output to cut carbon emissions and help Beijing's climate goals.

(Reporting by Hallie Gu and Shivani Singh; Editing by Aditya Soni)