CNOOC, the Chinese state-owned oil and gas corporation, has announced that it discovered a major new oilfield in the Bohai Sea, along the nation’s northern coastline, with estimated light crude reserves of 100 million tons.

In a statement released by the company Wednesday, it noted the Bozhong 26-6 oilfield was found in about 22 meters of water in the south of the Bohai sea. Drilled to 4,480 meters at completion, the discovery well encountered 321 meters of oil pay zones. The testing of the well produced an average of roughly 2040 barrels of crude oil and 11.45 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, according to the report.

Xu Changgui, CNOOC’s deputy chief exploration engineer, stated, “Bozhong 26-6 oilfield is the third oilfield discovery with [a] hundred million tons of reserves in [the] southern Bohai Sea after Kenli 6-1 and Kenli 10-2.”

Zhou Xinhuai, the company’s chief executive said his company, “will keep looking for mid-to-large-sized oil and gas fields and continue the momentum in offshore oil and gas development.”

Industry experts are estimating that oil and natural gas discoveries in the Bohai sea could see CNOOC increase its output to over 80 million tons of oil equivalent by 2025.

After CNPC and Sinopec, CNOOC is China’s third-largest oil company. Headquartered in Beijing and founded in 1982, the company focuses on the production, refining, and marketing of natural gas and oil extracted from the offshore zones of China.