A unit of Phillips Petroleum Co. has signed a contract with China National Offshore Oil Corp. (Cnooc) to explore the 2.3 million acre Bozhong block in the Gulf of Bohai off China.
Under terms of the contract, Phillips Petroleum International Corp. Asia will conduct seismic surveys and drill a number of wildcats.
The block lies near the mouth of the gulf, about 150 km east of Beijing. A number of commercial oil and gas fields have been discovered in the gulf. In the nearby onshore Bohai basin, the Dagang and Shengli areas are two of China's biggest producing regions.
Cnooc has the right to acquire as much as a 51% interest in any proposed development on the Phillips block.
The Bozhong contract area is Phillips' third exploration/production project in China. Last month, Phillips began producing from the first of two oil fields in the Xijiang area of the South China Sea (OGJ, Nov. 28, p. 32). Production from the second field will begin in 1995.
Phillips also is operator of and holds a 50% interest in two East China Sea blocks covering a combined 2.2 million acres 200 miles southeast of Shanghai. ARCO holds the remaining 50% interest. Phillips and ARCO are reprocessing seismic data under that agreement and will conduct additional seismic surveys there early in 1995.
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