Green transformation becomes a must answer question: Three barrels of oil accele

In the central part of Beibu Gulf in Beihai, Guangxi, lies Weizhou Island, which is one of the most beautiful islands in China. During the recently passed Dragon Boat Festival holiday, this place withstood the test of the surge in electricity demand.

In the past, the daily lighting of residents on Weizhou Island mainly relied on kerosene lamps. But since 1998, the Weizhou Oilfield Group has been supplying energy to the island residents. Nowadays, a smart power system consisting of gas power plants, waste heat power plants, photovoltaic power plants, energy storage, and other components has been built here, which integrates the source, grid, load, and storage, and complements multiple energy sources. It has become one of the few green energy islands in China.

This is not an isolated case. Against the backdrop of the green and low-carbon development concept driving the transformation of energy structure, the integration of traditional oil and gas with new energy has become a must answer question for current oil and gas enterprises. Domestic enterprises represented by the "three barrels of oil" are accelerating their layout of new energy.

"Island" uses "green electricity"

Entering China National Offshore Oil Corporation's "Weizhou Terminal" processing plant, the sight of photovoltaic panels and oil and gas processing facilities accompanying each other is eye-catching.

As an important component of China's third largest offshore oil and gas production base - the Western South China Sea Oilfield Group, the Weizhou Oilfield Group is located in the sea area west of Weizhou Island. Since its construction in the 1980s, the oilfield has built 26 offshore production platforms and 1 land terminal processing plant, with a maximum annual oil equivalent of over 4.7 million cubic meters.

Establishing the first domestic offshore smart grid connecting the Weizhou Oilfield Group and Weizhou Island, which generates electricity through onshore production terminals and offshore platform units using self-produced natural gas, ensuring safe and stable power supply for the offshore oilfield group. At the same time, it supplies more than 50 million kilowatt hours of electricity to Weizhou Island every year.

With the rapid development of tourism and the expansion of oil fields in Weizhou Island, the demand for electricity is also constantly increasing. Given the abundant solar energy resources on the island, the "Weizhou Terminal" processing plant, which mainly relies on gas and electricity, has been injected with a green blood.

In 2022, China's first offshore oilfield group photovoltaic power station - Weizhou Oilfield Group Photovoltaic Power Station - was officially put into operation. The reporter saw on site that more than 8000 photovoltaic panels occupied the roof, green lawn, and some open space of the "Weizhou Terminal" factory area. According to the data provided by the person in charge of "Weizhou Terminal" of CNOOC, the installed capacity of Weizhou Photovoltaic Power Station is about 4.5MW, with a total area of 36000 square meters. It provides 5.17 million kilowatt hours of green and clean electricity to residents of Weizhou Oilfield Group and Weizhou Island every year. Compared to natural gas power generation of the same scale, this power station can save 1.72 million cubic meters of natural gas annually and achieve a carbon reduction of 85000 tons during operation.

Not far away, two domestically produced air-cooled energy storage systems with a capacity of 2.5 MW/5 MW are in operation. This is the first offshore oil field group energy storage power station in China to be connected to the grid in 2023. During peak electricity consumption, the power station can provide continuous power supply of 5MW for 2 hours, saving 9 million cubic meters of natural gas annually.

"Weizhou Island is not connected to the overall power grid. It mainly relies on the small power grid currently built by CNOOC offshore. The civilian electricity on the island is mainly consumed from 7pm to 11pm. Therefore, we are building photovoltaic and energy storage power stations at the Weizhou Island terminal to meet the electricity demand. Photovoltaics generate electricity during the day and store energy to output electricity at night, making the electricity consumption of our entire power grid tend to be balanced and achieving the goal of improving the overall power generation efficiency of the grid." The person in charge of the "Weizhou Terminal" mentioned above said, "We are creating a green energy island with Weizhou characteristics through a new power supply model of 'distributed photovoltaic+energy storage power station+waste heat recovery+comprehensive utilization of associated gas'."

Building a "near zero" emission industry chain

The green transformation practice of Weizhou Island is a microcosm of CNOOC's active exploration of the integration and development of traditional oil and gas and new energy, and the creation of a "near zero" emission oil and gas industry chain.

On May 20, 2023, China's first deep-sea floating wind power platform, "CNOOC Guanlan", was successfully connected to the grid, marking a crucial step towards the "green power era" in offshore oil and gas development, and becoming a model for the integrated development of offshore oil and gas and new energy.

According to previous plans, CNOOC will allocate 5% to 10% of its capital expenditure to invest in the new energy and new industry during the 14th Five Year Plan period. Actively promote the scale and efficiency development of offshore wind power, and selectively develop the onshore photovoltaic wind power industry. Actively exploring new integrated development models such as "wind and solar power+oil and gas industry", "wind and solar power+natural gas power generation", "wind and solar power+seawater hydrogen production", and "wind and solar power+ocean ranching", striving to build 1 to 2 comprehensive energy demonstration islands.

"In 2024, we plan to achieve the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 523000 tons through measures such as the treatment of torch gas, the application of permanent magnet motor pumps, and the replacement of distributed new energy. We plan to consume 750 million kilowatt hours of green electricity and expect to reduce carbon emissions by 650000 tons. The relevant person in charge of CNOOC stated that we will explore the development of offshore wind power resources in the Beibu Gulf, and further explore new models of supercritical carbon dioxide waste heat utilization and low-carbon operation of offshore charging piles to promote the transformation and upgrading of green energy.".

It is reported that in the future, the first pure shore power offshore green oilfield group in Guangdong Province and the first domestic offshore oilfield ORC waste heat power station will be implemented in the western oil fields of the South China Sea, opening a new chapter in the integrated development of traditional oil and gas and new energy.

Accelerate the integration and development of new products

According to the Action Plan for Accelerating the Integration of Oil and Gas Exploration and Development with New Energy (2023-2025) issued in 2023, by 2025, it is necessary to vigorously promote the integration of oil and gas exploration and development with new energy, actively expand the scale of oil and gas enterprise development and utilization of green electricity, and achieve the main goals of "steady growth of oil and gas supply", "significant green development effects", and "significant acceleration of industry transformation".

Against the backdrop of accelerating the construction of a new energy system in our country, the integration and development of oil and gas with new energy is a future trend. It is conducive to leveraging the flexible start stop, rapid climbing, and extensive regulation value of oil and gas power generation, bringing new value-added space for the development of oil and gas resources; It also helps to promote the multi energy complementarity between traditional energy and new energy, ensuring the safe and stable operation of the power system.

Currently, domestic oil and gas companies represented by "three barrels of oil" are actively taking action. China Petroleum stated that it will accelerate the construction of new energy bases in Qinghai, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Songliao, and focus on the layout and implementation of projects such as wind and solar power generation, gas power, geothermal energy, hydrogen energy, and CCUS, in order to improve the conversion rate and grid connection rate of clean electricity indicators. Sinopec is comprehensively building a comprehensive energy service provider for oil, gas, hydrogen, and electricity services, promoting businesses such as hydrogen energy, charging and swapping, renewable energy generation, and CCUS.

A unique transformation model for oil and energy companies is taking shape, and the integration of oil and gas with new energy has created numerous new models.

It is worth noting that the path of integration is not a smooth one. Industry insiders have stated that traditional oil and gas companies do not have advantages in obtaining new energy resources. On the one hand, to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of energy, energy safety must be given top priority. We need to increase domestic oil and gas exploration and development efforts, and strengthen the construction of oil and gas reserve systems. At the same time, we will strengthen international cooperation in oil and gas, expand the scale and channels of oil and gas trade, and stabilize the supply chain of the oil and gas industry. On the other hand, it is necessary to choose fusion scenarios according to local conditions and focus on promoting the optimization combination of traditional energy and new energy to a higher level.