Progress and Enlightenment of Oil & Gas Exploration and Development in Deep Water

The present world oil & gas exploration and development situations in deep water areas and the distribution characteristics of the deep water HC resources are summarized in this paper, and the present oil & gas exploration progress in China deep water areas is analyzed. In addition,the HC resource potentials in deep water areas in the continental slope area of the northern part of South China Sea,the southwest water area of South China Sea as well as the East China Sea have been discussed. After shallow water oil & gas development for about 100 years,the peaks of offshore oil & gas exploration and development have shifted from shallow to deep water areas, and new HC discoveries as well as offshore oil & gas production have been made continuously in deep water areas in recent years. The deep water basins are distributed in four belts, including Atlantic Ocean deep water basins belt, west Pacific Ocean deep water basins belt, new Tethys deep water basins belt and around Arctic Ocean deep water basins belt. The petroleum exploration and development degree is quite different for different basins. The HC resource and potential in China deep water are abundant. But the exploration degree in these areas is still very low due to the limitations of technology and exploration investment. In recent years, great progress has been made in China not only in deepwater HC resource discovery, but also in the exploration & development technology and deep water equipment. It is very significant to fasten the exploration and development in China deep water area in order to guarantee the safety energy supply.