China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) is offering 10 offshore oil and gas blocks for exploration and development to foreign companies this year, the company has announced.

The blocks cover a total area of more than 66,666 square kilometres in Bohai Bay, the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea, with water depths ranging from 10-200 metres.

Interested foreign companies can buy data packages on the blocks at CNOOC's offices in Tianjin, Shanghai and Beijing, and Guangzhou and Zhanjiang in the southern province of Guangdong, as well as Gaobeidian in northern China's Hebei Province, the statement said.

China is stepping up efforts to tap its offshore oil and gas resources to feed the roaring economy and supplement depleting onshore reserves.

CNOOC is the largest offshore oil producer in China. It enjoys exclusive rights to explore for, produce and market China's offshore oil in co-operation with foreign companies.

Big name partners include Royal Dutch/Shell, Kerr-McGee Corp and ConocoPhillips.

However, China's largest oil producer China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Asia's top refiner China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) are currently challenging CNOOC's domination of offshore exploration.

Last July, CNPC acquired a licence to search for oil and gas in the South China Sea and subsequently set up an offshore engineering arm four months later.

Sinopec was also awarded exploration rights in the East China Sea.

In another development, CNOOC announced on Tuesday it had made a new discovery with Weizhou (WZ) 6-10-1 in the western South China Sea. The well was tested to pump nearly 1,900 barrels of oil and 530,000 cubic feet of gas per day during two drill stem tests, the company said in a statement.

Source: China Daily