Since the beginning of the year, China has discovered a number of deep-sea oil and gas fields off the country’s coast, significantly increasing the country’s oil and gas reserves.

In February, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced the discovery of the Bozhong 26-6 oil field, the world’s largest metamorphic oil field. The field is located in the southern waters of the Bohai Sea, about 170 kilometers from the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, and has proven reserves of more than 200 million tons of oil equivalent.

The Kaiping South light crude oil field, discovered by CNOOC in March, is located in the deepwater area of ​​the Pearl River estuary in the eastern South China Sea. The field is China’s first deepwater oil field with deep drilling. The average sea depth is 500 meters, the maximum drilling depth is 4,831 meters. The proven reserves amount to over 100 million tons.

In the field of offshore oil and gas exploration, areas with a water depth of more than 300 meters are considered deep sea, while drilling with a depth of more than 3,500 meters is classified as deep drilling.

In addition, earlier this month, CNOOC announced that the original gas infill (OGIP) of the Lingshui 36-1 gas field – the world’s first large-scale and ultra-shallow gas field in ultra-deep waters – is estimated to be over 100 billion cubic meters, marking a significant advance for China’s offshore gas resource exploration.

“In recent years, we have actively pursued the national strategy of becoming a strong maritime nation by accelerating our development of marine energy. We have faced the technical challenges of developing oil and gas fields and deep-sea drilling in ultra-deep waters, including exploration, drilling and engineering. We have built projects such as the Deep Sea No. 1 power plant and the Liuhua oil field development project, and achieved a series of important innovations. We now have the preliminary ability to operate in all marine areas – from deep to ultra-deep waters and from shallow to deep layers – laying a solid foundation for the development of deep-sea energy,” said Xie Yuhong, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

China announces discovery of a series of deep-sea oil and gas fields

Ugandan businessmen no longer need to carry large sums of money when traveling to China thanks to an increasingly streamlined banking system that enables smooth financial transactions, an official at the country’s finance ministry said.

In a recent interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Margret Naikoba, head of the e-cash department at Uganda’s Ministry of Financial Planning and Economic Development, explained how the new banking system will enable Ugandans to easily do business in China.

“Currently, Ugandan businessmen do not need to transport large sums of money from Uganda to China. Thanks to the easy banking system, Ugandan companies only need to come with their bank cards, can withdraw money from China here, do their business transactions and go home. Another and perhaps final success is that the partnership opens accounts for traders in Uganda and China. It is very easy. In Uganda, you can open an account with ICBC, and even here in China. Companies that come here have one currency and can do business easily. This has enabled them to do business both ways, in China and Uganda,” she said.

As Beijing prepares for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit from September 4 to 6, Uganda is setting its priorities for the meeting. Naikoba highlighted several focus areas outlined by Uganda’s Finance Minister Matia Kasaija.

“One of them is value addition in agriculture. That is a key area among the priority areas to look at. He also wants us to look at tourism. He wants us to look at mineral development in oil and gas, particularly now also science, innovation and technology. Those are the priority areas of our government. Then he also wants to see investments in the maintenance of existing infrastructure and then maybe the development of industrial parks. Of course, then we come together with development partners who will work with us and do those developments. So more ambition at the FOCAC summit in terms of those investments and strategies,” Naikoba said.

Finance official: Ugandan companies benefit from simplified banking with China