China National Offshore Oil Co., Ltd. (CNOOC Ltd.) announced on Tuesday it had discovered oil and natural gas in its wildcat well, drilled in the Yellow River Mouth Sag of east China's Bohai Bay.

Test flows were about 1,500 barrels of oil and 220,000 cubic feet of gas per day, according to the Beijing-based oil giant. Zhu Weilin, CNOOC Ltd. executive vice president, said the discovery further demonstrated the exploration potential of the Yellow River Mouth Sag. Since 2006, the company had made six discoveries in the same area.

Listed in Hong Kong and New York, the company is the listed arm of the China National Offshore Oil Corp., the nation's largest offshore oil producer.

CNOOC Ltd. produced 171 million barrels-of-oil-equivalent last year, up 2.6 percent from a year earlier.

(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2008)