OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2011. CNOOC Ltd. China’s largest offshore energy explorer, may idle two natural gas fields for as long as two months after they were shut yesterday because of a leak in a subsea pipeline, CLSA Ltd. said.
The outage could lead to gas shortages in the industrial province of Guangdong if supply from liquefied natural gas terminals is unable to make up the shortfall, analyst Simon Powell said in a research note e-mailed to clients today.

CNOOC said yesterday that PY30-1 and HZ21-1f fields in South China Sea were shut after the Zhuhai Maritime Safety Administration notified it of the leak. The Beijing-based company will lose equilvalent of around 26,700 barrels of oil daily, or 2.9 percent of its 2011 production target, adding to the loss of 40,000 barrels a day from the closure in September of the Penglai field in Bohai Bay.

“We see lack of production growth as a significant issue for Cnooc in 2012, and this event is not going to help,” Powell wrote. “It’s too early to figure out how long the fields will need to be turned off, but we assume a month or two of lost production.”
The explorer’s shares fell 0.6 percent to HKD 13.50 as of 11:15 a.m. in Hong Kong. The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 0.4 percent.

The cause of the leak is still under investigation, CNOOC said yesterday, and it will repair the pipeline to resume operations at the terminal as soon as possible. No one was hurt and there was no environmental damage, according to the statement. Vessels near the leak were evacuated.

CNOOC reduced its output target to 331 million to 341 million barrels of oil equivalent from a goal of as much as 365 million after China ordered ConocoPhillips, operator of Penglai sites, to stop production on Sept. 2.