The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced in April that construction has officially started on a carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) project at the Dongfang 1-1 gas field in south China’s Hainan Province.

The project marks the country’s first demonstration initiative applying offshore carbon injection technology to enhance natural gas production. Once fully operational, the project is designed to permanently store more than 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide underground each year.

Yu Fasong, head of the Dongfang 1-1 CCUS project at CNOOC Hainan, said: “With the new project, we will move the decarbonization process, originally located at onshore processing plants, to the offshore platform itself, achieving carbon reduction at the source. Compared with traditional processes, the technology used here offers higher equipment integration, lower energy consumption, and better recovery of hydrocarbon components.”

Upon completion, the project will be fully connected to the existing production infrastructure of the Dongfang 1-1 gas field. It will enhance the transportation capacity of the subsea pipeline network in the Yinggehai Sea, support the cost-effective development of more carbon-rich natural gas resources in the region, and help sustain long-term stable production of the entire Dongfang gas field cluster.

Photo courtesy of CNOOC