China's state-controlled CNOOC expects a fire at one of its offshore platforms earlier this week to reduce crude production by around 600,000 bl this year. A production platform at the company's Penglai fields in northeast China's Bohai bay was hit by a fire on 5 April after shallow gas overflowed during drilling operations, CNOOC said today in its first comment on the incident. Argus reported the fire yesterday. The fire was extinguished on 6 April and there has been no oil spill or environmental pollution so far, CNOOC said. The company evacuated 99 of the 102 people on the platform at the time of the incident, and ... (full story)