Located on the western edge of the bay the project is a partnership with the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), which holds a majority 51% stake. The field's status as a shallow-water block meant that it could be developed exclusively by CNPC and a foreign operator.
In most circumstances the China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has rights to a farm-in on any offshore project. However, the Zhao Dong field is unusual in that it lies in water with an average depth of less than two metres.
Apache's plans to develop the Zhao Dong field have been held up by the bankruptcy of its former partner, XCL China. However, the company has now begun output and expects production to be ramped up to 22,000bopd by the end of the year.
China's total oil production in 2002 stood at 3.4mbopd, but output from China's oldest field in the north-east is estimated to have declined by between 20,000 and 50,000 bpd.
The project's Optimized Drilling Platform (ODA), where crude oil is to be produced, completed installation last November. Oil extracted will be first processed and stored at the Optimized Production Platform, then periodically offloaded to shuttle barges of 2,800 tons for transportation to an existing onshore storage facility at Tanggu, about 56km away.
