China Removes Contentious Oil Rig From Waters Claimed by Vietnam

On Tuesday, the state-backed China Oilfield Services Limited said the billion-dollar platform, which had been drilling in the heart of highly contested waters claimed by Vietnam, had “precisely extracted the related geological data as planned” and was being redeployed to sea blocks off China’s Hainan Island.

Drilling rigs do not stay on site when the drilling is done, regardless if they find oil or not.

Production would come later from a different kind of platform.

Most like this was just exploratory trying to gather info whether this is worthwhile to go after or leave alone.

Lots of info on this at:

http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/134049/Chinese_Oil_Rig_Moved_Away_From_Disputed_Waters_Off_Vietnam/?all=HG2

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country’s dominant oil and gas producer, said in a statement the rig “smoothly completed” its drilling on Tuesday and found signs of oil and gas. The next step would be to analyse the geological data and evaluate the layers of oil and gas, it said.

CNPC’s preliminary analysis showed “the area has the basic conditions and potential for oil exploration, but extraction testing cannot begin before a comprehensive assessment of the data”, Xinhua quoted Wang Zhen, deputy director of the CNPC Policy Research Office, as saying.

China had previously said the rig was scheduled to explore the waters around the Paracels until mid-August. It was not clear why it had finished one month ahead of schedule, although Xinhua said July was the beginning of the typhoon season.

- See more at: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/134049/Chinese_Oil_Rig_Moved_Away_From_Disputed_Waters_Off_Vietnam/?all=HG2#sthash.CTyouSyb.dpuf

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