CNOOC Signs CNY 12 Billion Wushi Offshore Project Pairing Four Wind Turbines With Two Oil Fields
CNOOC will build four wind turbines alongside two manned wellhead platforms and one unmanned platform to develop the Wushi 16-5 and 16-9 oil fields, under a project worth about CNY 12 billion signed on July 29 in Beijing.
The development sits inside a package of 18 projects signed at a matchmaking conference between central state-owned enterprises and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Those deals span energy development, big data, transport and logistics, high-end manufacturing, modern agriculture, and wholesale and retail trade.
The Wushi scheme is unusual in placing generation assets inside an upstream development rather than beside it. Four turbines are listed as new-build items in the same scope as the wellhead platforms and the expansion of the Wushi terminal processing plant.
Subsea scope covers three multiphase transport pipelines, two gas injection pipelines, one water injection pipeline and five composite cables. The cable count matters for a hybrid layout: composite cables carry power and control between offshore facilities, which is the physical link that lets turbine output reach production equipment.
Reserves committed to the development are 26 million cubic metres of crude and 2.7 billion cubic metres of condensate gas. Expected cumulative output is 4.7 million cubic metres of oil and 1.8 billion cubic metres of gas. Total production value of the project is put at CNY 20.7 billion.
The timetable runs through a basic design review to be completed in December 2026, a final investment decision in April 2027, and first production in 2028. That sequencing means the wind component is not a retrofit bolted onto a producing asset but a design-stage choice that has to clear FID with the rest of the scope.
Li Mao, Party committee secretary and general manager of the Zhanjiang branch of CNOOC China Limited, presented the project. According to Li Mao, CNOOC holds its most complete industrial footprint in Guangdong and has invested most heavily there over the years.
The company also says it wants to produce hydrogen at sea using offshore wind and green power, and is in discussions with the Zhanjiang municipal government on that idea.
For operators outside the region, the interest is in the economics of the template rather than the barrels. Powering wellhead platforms and a terminal from dedicated turbines displaces fuel that would otherwise be burned on site, and the four-turbine count against a CNY 12 billion capital envelope gives a first read on how small the generation share can be while still being embedded in the base case. The April 2027 investment decision is the point at which that share is either funded or dropped.