China’s Bozhong 19-6 Mega Gas Field Phase I Fully Operational to Boost Regional Energy Supply

According to state media reports, Phase I of the Bozhong 19-6 gas field, a large-scale trillion-cubic-metre gas asset located in the central Bohai Sea, achieved full operational status on 9 August. Operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the project delivers a daily oil and gas equivalent output of more than 5,200 tonnes, marking a major upgrade to offshore energy production capacity in northern China.

The Bozhong 19-6 field holds proven geological gas reserves exceeding 200 billion cubic metres, alongside over 200 million cubic metres of liquid petroleum reserves. It stands as one of the most significant offshore deep hydrocarbon reservoirs in eastern China, forming a core pillar of stable energy supply for the Bohai Rim economic zone.

The field features ultra-deep burial of over 5,000 metres, with widely distributed and structurally complex oil and gas reservoirs and densely fractured buried hill formations. Operational environments present extreme geological challenges, including formation temperatures reaching 204 degrees Celsius and strata hardness exceeding standard carbon steel materials. Technical teams have developed a fully independent technological system tailored for ultra-deep reservoir exploitation in the Bohai Sea, completing the world’s first branch well operation in Archaean buried hill strata.

During the Phase I construction and development process, ten ultra-deep wells exceeding 6,000 metres were successfully drilled, setting a new record for the largest number of ultra-deep wells in a single Bohai Sea field development project. The average drilling depth across the project surpasses 5,500 metres. Condensate gas stored in micron-level fractures within buried hill strata easily converts from gaseous to liquid states under falling formation pressure. Customised exploitation technologies have been established to stabilise reservoir pressure, effectively maintaining both gas and oil output and overcoming technical bottlenecks in complex ultra-deep offshore reservoir development.

China’s natural gas reserves demonstrate uneven geographical distribution, with abundant resources concentrated in western inland regions and relatively limited supplies in eastern coastal areas. The Bozhong 19-6 field has accumulated more than 2.8 billion cubic metres of commercial gas output to date. Amid the peak summer energy consumption period, the fully launched Phase I project delivers a daily gas output of 3.5 million cubic metres, effectively meeting residential and industrial energy demand across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and broader Bohai Rim regions.

Adopting a structured development strategy of overall planning, phased construction and pilot verification, the full-scale drilling programme for Phase II of the Bozhong 19-6 gas field has commenced. Subsequent construction and operational advancement will further strengthen offshore oil and gas supply capacity, optimise national energy supply structures and enhance the stability of domestic energy provision systems.