China Investigates Oil Leak at ConocoPhillips Offshore Field

An oil leak in early June at Penglai 19-3 oilfield off China’s Bohai Sea operated by ConocoPhillips has been cleaned up with little interference to production, a Chinese official from China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) reports.

Penglai is China’s largest offshore oilfield, producing about 160,000 barrels of oil a day.  Conoco holds a 49% stake in the field, while CNOOC has 51%. CNOOC officials confirmed that the leak took place earlier in June and caused an oil slick near the waters of the Penglai field. 

Jiang Yongzhi, CNOOC Ltd's spokesperson, commented that the leaking areas have long been under control and that the slick has been cleaned up.  It was added that it may have caused a delay in crude loadings for a few days, but nothing else. 

The Penglai field harnesses a 2-million barrel floating, production, storage and offloading facility which is the largest in China.  The leak produced a 3-km long, 20-30 meter wide oil slick that, according to sources, was quickly cleaned.

There is a news conference scheduled for July 5th with the State Oceanic Administration and their investigation’s findings to address the incident.
It is currently unclear what caused the spill to occur.