OREANDA-NEWS. BP and CNOOC signed a production sharing agreement for Block 54/11 in the deepwater Pearl River Mouth Basin, South China Sea. The block covers 4,586 square kilometres in water depths from 370 to 2,300 metres, and is close to BP's existing deepwater interests in Blocks 43/11 and 42/05.

Liming Chen, President BP China, said: “This builds on our South China Sea presence creating a strong base for future exploration success for China and for BP.”

CNOOC will be operator of 54/11; terms of the production sharing agreement were not disclosed.

BP was awarded acreage in deepwater blocks 42/05 and 43/11 in 2010 and 2011 respectively; both are in the exploration period.

BP has been investing in China since the early 1970s and currently operates 17 active joint ventures and wholly-owned BP business entities, hiring over 1,300 direct employees and about 3,700 people via its joint ventures. With a total investment of about USD 4.9billion at the end of 2012, BP is one of the leading foreign investors in China. BP's business activities include deepwater exploration, petrochemicals manufacturing and marketing, aviation fuel supply, oil product and lubricant retailing, and the chemicals technology licensing.