On November 3, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced that its “Haiheng” FLAT PRO wide-temperature rheology-stable high-performance synthetic-based drilling fluid system (hereafter “Haiheng” deepwater drilling fluid system) won the OTC Brazil New Technology Award at the recently concluded 2025 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Brazil. This marks a significant milestone for China’s deepwater drilling fluid technology, signifying a transition from follower to peer in the global deepwater drilling domain. It strengthens China’s technological reserves for deep-sea oil and gas exploration and offers a new “Chinese solution” for complex deepwater and ultra-deep drilling worldwide.

In the competition, the “Haiheng” deepwater drilling fluid system stood out with its record-breaking rheological stability range. The technology maintains stable flow properties between -10°C and 180°C under harsh conditions with narrow safe density windows, enabling safe and efficient exploration in extreme environments—such as water depths over 3,000 meters, well depths beyond 10,000 meters, ultra-long horizontal displacements, and polar regions.

Known as the “Oscars” of the offshore oil and gas industry, the OTC awards recognize groundbreaking innovations with global impact. Following its 2024 wins at OTC Asia for the “Haiheng” CO₂ sequestration cementing technology and the “Xuanyue” post-casing density logging technology, CNOOC once again captured the OTC Brazil New Technology Award with the “Haiheng” drilling and completion fluid technology. Achieving top honors at three consecutive OTC events underscores CNOOC’s leap from “technology follower” to “technology peer” and greatly enhances its international competitiveness and brand reputation.

According to the OTC Brazil organizing committee, “‘Haiheng’ cementing equipment has been successfully installed and commissioned in Brazil’s deepwater areas. The success of the ‘Haiheng’ deepwater drilling fluid system makes us even more eager to adopt this cutting-edge technology.”

As CNOOC’s independently developed oilfield chemical technology brand, the “Haiheng” series enables the creation of stable fluid environments and channels between downhole drilling tools and geological formations—key to executing offshore drilling and completion operations. The “Haiheng” deepwater drilling and completion fluid series has been widely applied in global deepwater and ultra-deepwater drilling operations, with an average operating depth exceeding 1,500 meters and a maximum of 2,619 meters, setting a record for the deepest operation in the western Pacific.

Project leader Bu Jiyong stated, “‘Haiheng’ has overcome key challenges in wellbore stability for extended-reach wells and currently holds China’s offshore records for the deepest well (9,508 meters) and longest horizontal displacement (8,689 meters). This represents a major achievement of CNOOC’s integrated ‘research–production–application–improvement’ model driven by foundational scientific innovation.”

This award highlights CNOOC’s continued efforts to advance technologies for ultra-high-temperature, ultra-high-pressure, and ultra-deepwater applications. In recent years, CNOOC’s subsidiaries have made steady progress toward technological self-reliance by fostering original and leading innovations, securing control over key equipment manufacturing, and establishing a comprehensive R&D chain spanning “surface, subsea, and subsurface” technologies. The company’s cementing and drilling fluid technologies now cover 95% of mainstream industry applications, placing CNOOC among the world’s top-tier service providers.

The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) is one of the largest and most influential oil and gas industry events globally. The 2025 Brazil conference, themed “The Future of Deepwater Technology: Connecting Oil, Gas, and Renewable Energy,” hosted over 5,000 delegates, 200 global energy companies, and attracted more than 25,000 attendees.