The Penglai 19-3 field, operated by ConocoPhillips (49%) and jointly owned by state-owned energy giant CNOOC (51%), has been leaking since June.

Last Friday, Chinese authorities ordered the entire field - which was producing around 120,000 barrels of oil a day before the incident - to be shut down in addition to the two wells that had already been subject to a partial closure.

The Bohai Bay spill is miniscule in comparison to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. An estimated 3223 barrels of oil and associated liquids have been leaked under the current incident, compared to the estimated 4.1 million barrels of oil that poured into the Gulf of Mexico.

But with the Chinese government lending increasing rhetoric to its environmental credentials, the spill is the first real environmental test of the country's oil and gas industry since the GoM disaster.

So far, the reaction from the Chinese authorities has been swift.

In addition to ordering the complete shutdown of the field, China's State Oceanic Administration slammed Conoco's efforts in bringing the leak under control, warning that claims would be filed against the company for the environmental damage caused to date.

According to a statement from CNOOC, the regulator found Conoco "did not fulfil its duties as a reasonable and prudent operator".

The Bohai Bay field accounts for around 2.3% to 3% of the total annual production of CNOOC, one of the world's largest oil companies.

There are few harder challenges in public relations than managing an oil spill, and, like BP's Deepwater Horizon experience in the Gulf of Mexico last year, both CNOOC and ConocoPhillips have been criticised for their handling of the issue.

News of the spill only came to light after posts about the spill emerged on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.

It remains to be seen how Conoco and CNOOC's attempt to subtly suggest the clean-up has left the bay cleaner than it was previously washes with both the public and the authorities.

Conoco, having found little evidence of oil washing on to any beaches in the bay after carrying out 87,000 kilometres of inspections by vehicle and 5600 kilometres of inspection by foot, has taken to cleaning up general garbage in the bay as part of its efforts to recover the spilled oil and liquids.

So far, over 10 tonnes of garbage has been recovered from the beaches and the water as part of the clean-up efforts.

It remains to be seen just what sort of long-term impact the Bohai Bay spill has on the regulatory and operating cost environment in China.

GoM oil and gas players are still coming to terms with the higher costs of doing business there in the wake of Deepwater Horizon, and the other operators in Bohai Bay - which happen to include Sydney-based Roc Oil - will be keeping a very close watch on any regulatory fallout from the latest incident.