The first phase of the Bozhong 19-6 field in the central Bohai Sea has entered full operation, lifting daily oil and gas output above 5,200 tonnes. The project is the first offshore field in China identified with natural-gas resources on the scale of 100 billion cubic metres and is now operating during the summer peak in residential and industrial demand.
Bozhong 19-6 has already delivered more than 2.8 billion cubic metres of natural gas. As the largest offshore gas field in eastern China, it supports supply for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban cluster and communities and industries around the Bohai rim, partly offsetting the country's concentration of gas reserves in its western regions.
The field contains more than 200 billion cubic metres of proven geological gas reserves and over 200 million cubic metres of proven petroleum liquids. Its deposits lie more than 5,000 metres below the surface in complex, widely dispersed reservoirs and densely fractured buried-hill formations, making development an engineering test as well as an energy project.
Full commissioning demonstrates the capacity to extract hydrocarbons from deep and complicated offshore structures. Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, linked the achievement to greater gas self-sufficiency in the east, where proximity to major consumers can reduce dependence on long-distance transfers.
The field is part of the broader Bohai Oilfield, the country's first ultra-large offshore oil and gas production area with annual capacity of 40 million tonnes. Output there exceeded 21 million tonnes during the first half of 2026, a record for the period and an indication of the growing role assigned to offshore production.
Drilling for Phase II of Bozhong 19-6 has begun across the project. The next stage is intended to expand the contribution of Bohai gas to domestic supply, building on the infrastructure and technical experience established during the first development phase rather than treating the current launch as the field's final capacity.
The project fits a renewed national exploration and development drive for 2026. Energy authorities aim to keep annual domestic crude production above 200 million tonnes while continuing to raise natural-gas output, using new discoveries, deeper reservoirs and technology to strengthen energy security as demand changes.
From 2019 through 2025, 17 oilfields with reserves above 100 million tonnes and 34 gas fields above 100 billion cubic metres were added to the national reserve base. Shale resources and coalbed methane represented 22 percent of newly proven reserves, while crude output reached a record 216 million tonnes in 2025. The next stage emphasizes scientific innovation, artificial intelligence in exploration and closer integration between hydrocarbons and new energy.
