China’s first deepwater drilling rig started operations in the South China Sea on Wednesday, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The sixth-generation semi-submersible CNOOC 981 began drilling in a sea area 320 km southeast of Hong Kong at a depth of 1,500 meters, China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), the country’s largest offshore oil producer, said.
In April, CNOOC signed a production sharing contract with Eni China B.V. for a deepwater block in the South China Sea.
Block 30/27, located 400 kilometers off the coast of Hong Kong with a total area of 5,130 square kilometers, is one of the blocks CNOOC first offered for foreign cooperation in 2011.