Letter from China: State firms stay committed to hydrocarbons
Beijing has made big promises on emissions, but China’s NOCs are still going for gas
As BP marked its UK offshore wind debut with a blockbuster winning bid, on the other side of the world one of China’s biggest energy producers got to work installing a giant floating platform in a show of commitment to fossil fuels. The 100,000t floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) platform—the world’s biggest, according to operator Cnooc, one of Chinas’ ‘big three’ state-controlled oil and gas firms—will serve China’s first domestically operated deepwater gas field in the South China Sea. Built to last 150 years, it will help the Lingshui 17-2 field meet one-quarter of gas demand in the sprawling Greater Bay Area, which includes Hong Kong and Macao. Cnooc’s work at the Lingshu
Also in this section
1 August 2025
A number of companies have filed arbitration claims against Gazprom over non-deliveries of contracted gas or other matters—and won. The next step is to collect the award; this is no easy task but it can be done thanks to an international legal framework under the New York Convention.
1 August 2025
Europe’s refining sector is desperately trying to adapt to a shifting global energy landscape and nowhere is this more apparent than in its largest economy
1 August 2025
The Middle East natural gas playbook is being rewritten. The fuel source offers the region a pathway to a cleaner, sustainable and affordable means of local power, to fasttrack economic development and as a lucrative opportunity to better monetise its energy resources.
31 July 2025
TotalEnergies is an outlier among other majors for remaining committed to low-carbon investments while continuing to replenish and expand its ample oil and gas portfolio, with an appetite for high risk/high return projects.
