Conoco's Bohai Bay wells begin to reopen

ConocoPhillips, part owner of China's biggest offshore oilfield, started reopening wells to ease reservoir pressure after leaks caused the country's worst spill in more than a year. The US oil producer, which owns 49 per cent of the Penglai 19-3 field in Bohai Bay, has started discharging fluids at Platform B, the company's China unit said in a statement on its website yesterday. Leaks at platforms B and C, two of five at Penglai 19-3, have polluted 870 square kilometres of Bohai Bay since June. The spills prompted China's government to shut the entire field on September 2 and Penglai's co-owner CNOOC Ltd. to lower its full-year output estimate by as much as 9.3 per cent.