The Chinese government has endorsed a major plan by Chinese offshore operator CNOOC Ltd to build a giant offshore wind farm in the South China Sea, boosting its ambition to become one of the country’s largest offshore wind power developers.

The government has just issued a circular calling on Chinese oil and gas companies to prioritise their expertise to provide green power for hydrocarbon production to reduce their carbon footprint during operations. For CNOOC Ltd, it means taking advantage of its offshore engineering capacity to provide wind power to offshore oil and gas platforms.

CNOOC Ltd in an internal report said that its CZ7 offshore wind pilot project is located west of Dongfang city in Hainan province, with total capacity of 1.503 gigawatts.

The project will be built in two phases. The first phase, CZ7-1 with 603.5 megawatts, will be located 29 kilometres from shore in water depths between 11 and 44 metres.

CNOOC Ltd will install 71 wind turbines each with capacity of 8.5 MW in a sea area covering 60 square kilometres during this phase.

The second phase — CZ7-2 — with 900 MW installed capacity, will involve installation of 75 turbines each with capacity of 12 MW in a sea area covering 126 square kilometres, located 38 kilometres from shore.

Each phase will also include a high voltage direct current (HVDC) substation. When finished, the facilities will be able to generate 4.9 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per annum, the company said.

Meanwhile, the Beijing-based company has just installed its pioneering deep-water floating wind platform that will supply green power to operated offshore oil and gas production facilities in the South China Sea.

The floating wind platform, Haiyou Guanlan, is located in the Beibu Gulf at a distance of 136 kilometres from Yangjiang city, Hainan province.

The facility’s 7.25-MW typhoon-proof turbine operates in a water depth of 120 metres at CNOOC Ltd’s Wenchang oil and gas project in the South China Sea.

At Bohai Bay offshore northern China, CNOOC Ltd is working with US major ConocoPhillips to develop an offshore wind farm to supply green power for oil production at the Penglai oilfield.

With four wind turbines with total installed capacity of 34 MW, the partners say the wind farm will be tied back to the existing central processing platform via subsea cables, distributing energy to the field’s power grid system.

At full capacity, the wind farm will have the potential to meet more than 30% of the power needed for Penglai’s operations and achieve tens of thousands of tonnes of annual carbon dioxide reductions.

CNOOC Ltd said that China now has more than 20 offshore wind farms with total capacity exceeding 30 GW.