China Drills in Deeper Waters to Cut Reliance on Foreign Oil

  • State-owned giant Cnooc spearheading offshore drilling efforts
  • Wells at sea account for 60% of country’s new oil production
Workers assemble a jacket for an offshore oil platform at a construction site in Zhuhai, China.Source: Cnooc
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A concrete expanse the size of Monaco jutting off China’s southern coastline is the imposing centerpiece in Beijing’s efforts to slow its growing dependence on imported oil.

More than 15,000 workers can be on site at one time at the facility at Zhuhai, near the gambling mecca of Macau. Run by a unit of China National Offshore Oil Corp., it’s been churning out production platforms to be deployed in China’s offshore oil fields.