Shenhai-1, the first deep-sea gas field fully operated by a Chinese company, has produced over 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas, operator China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced Sunday.

Located 150 kilometers from south China's Hainan Island, the deep-sea well has been the most difficult to exploit. It is an important source of clean energy for the Hainan Free Trade Port and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Since the start of its operation on June 25, 2021, the daily output of the gas field has risen from 400,000 cubic meters to the present 10 million cubic meters.

Yuan Yuan, director-general of the gas field, said the cumulative output of over 1 billion cubic meters has proved the capability and reliability of China's self-made systems for exploration, exploitation, production and operation of deep-sea gas and oil reserves.

Featuring world's first 100,000-tonne semi-submersible oil production and storage platform, the energy station will be able to supply 3 billion cubic meters of gas to south China's Guangdong Province, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Hainan Province on an annual basis, meeting a quarter of the total gas demand of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Closely following the changes in upstream and downstream production of gas fields, the operation team overcame a series of obstacles, such as ensuring safety amid strong deep-sea currents and self-debugging of the ethylene glycol recycling system, said Pei Jianxiang, manager of the Department of Exploration and Exploitation of the Hainan branch of the CNOOC. 

In the future, the team is looking forward to applying its experiences to more gas fields as it is actively promoting the exploitation of gas fields including Shenhai-2, also known as Lingshui 25-1, Pei added.