CNOOC Ltd, China's largest offshore oil and gas producer, is expected to benefit from the abundant oil and gas resources in South China Sea, where the oil and gas geological reserves are estimated to be 30 billion barrels and the recoverable reserves at most 10 billion barrels, according to research institute Sanford Bernstein.

CNOOC is preparing seven new wells for drilling in the South China Sea and Sanford Bernstein forecasts that these seven wells, if found to have recoverable oil and gas, would be worth of 20 billion US dollars.

According to CNOOC's 2008 financial report, it has 2.52 billion barrels of oil equivalents of reserves by the end of 2008 including the 960 million barrels in the South China Sea.

Sanford Bernstein forecasts that 20 percent of CNOOC's oil and gas output by 2015 would come from the deepwater region of the South China Sea.

CNOOC previously revealed that it plans to invest 200 billion yuan in developing the South China Sea, and intends to build an oil and gas production base with an annual capacity of 50 million tons there.