Exploratory field breakthroughs exhibit the future of hydrocarbon exploration offshore China:a review of hydrocarbon exploration offshore China in 2011

A good discovering trend formed since executing the eleventh Five-Year Plan continued in the hydrocarbon exploration offshore China in 2011,during which the new historical high was reached both in exploration expenditure and work,and a series of rich rewards were achieved by knowledge innovation and technology improvement on a basis of paying special attention to basic and regional researches.Besides continuously expanding discoveries in the mature exploration areas,seveval breakthrouths in exploratory fields,such as the lithologic reservoir and gas exploration in Bohai sea,the shallow exploration in the eastern South China Sea,the high-tempetature and high-pressure gas exploration in the western South China Sea and the low porosity and permeability reservoir exploration in East China Sea,were made successively,creating an excellent begining of the twelfth Five-Year Plan.In this paper,the major work features and results are summarized for the hydrocarbon exploration offshore China in 2011,with these breakthroughs being paticularly reviewed,and some challenges and their solutions are presented for the future exploration.