In a statement the firm said, “The centre is located on Bohai Sea and is capable of turning out 2 million tons of crude oil and gas annually. Up to now, the centre is constructed with more than 80 platforms for sea drilling and with 100-km-long seabed pipelines for oil and gas transport.”

“[The centre] has altogether produced 16 million tons of crude and gas and Shengli Oilfield turned out 26.58 million tons of crude oil and 810 million cubic metres of gas last year [and] is striving to produce 30 million tons of crude oil annually,” added the firm without elaborating further.

The Dongying City-based firm only set up its offshore petroleum development unit a decade ago and it began operations with “six shabby marine platforms for oil drilling and several refitted oil tankers”.