The Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) signed an official Strategic Cooperation Agreement with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in Ningbo of Zhejiang Province on September 20th, 2012. The signing ceremony witnessed the presence of Zhou Ji, President of CAE, Xie Kechang, Vice President of CAE, Wang Yilin, Chairman of CNOOC, as well as CAE Members Huang Qili, Qiu Aici, Chen Niannian, Gu Jincai, Lei Qingquan, Li LiYing, Li Xiaohong, Qian Shaojun, Shen Guorong, Su Yinao, Sun Longde, Wen Xueyou, Yuan Liang, Zeng Hengyi, Zhang Tiegang and Zhou Shouwei. Zhou Ji and Wang Yilin addressed the signing ceremony, while Xie Kechang, Vice President of CAE, and Li Fanrong, Deputy General Manager of CNOOC, signed on the Strategic Cooperation Agreement on behalf of the Academy and the Enterprise. 

Zhou Ji, first of all, expressed warm con gratulations to the signing of the strategic cooperation agreement. He said that, after 30 years of unremitting efforts, CNOOC, as China’s largest offshore oil and gas producer, had developed into a comprehensive energy group with a prominent core business, a complete industrial chain, as well as sound integration among the upper, middle and lower stream industries. This process had taken western oil companies one hundred years to complete. Zhou said that, CNOOC had made major breakthroughs in exploration, yielded substantial results in its deep-water strategy, further accelerated its South China Sea joint development process, and made significant progress in its overseas development, especially in the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period. At the same time, as an outstanding representative of state-owned enterprises as well as the backbone enterprise of the industry, CNOOC had taken science and technology as the major driving force for development and regarded it as one of the four major strategies, thus seizing opportunities actively and promoting technological innovation vigorously. CNOOC had striven to build a technological system for deep water energy exploration and development. As a result, CNOOC had made a series of major technological innovation achievements.

Zhou stressed that, as the top honorary and advisory academic institution in the engineering science and technology community in China, as well as a national engineering science and technology think-tank, CAE had taken the service of scientific development of local industries and enterprises as one of its major responsibilities. Scientific development depends on scientific decision-making, and scientific decision-making depends on scientific consultation. The CAE had long attached great importance to the collaboration with CNOOC, carrying out a number of advisory studies and survey tours jointly. These cooperative efforts had produced good economic and social benefits, thus making valuable advisory suggestions in response to major national strategic demands. Zhou also said that the signing of the Strategic Cooperation Agreement between the Academy and the SNOOC marked another milestone for collaboration between them. The CAE would try every means to implement the articles in the Agreement earnestly, giving full play to the comprehensive advantages of CAE Members and their teams of being inter-disciplinary, cross-sectoral and cross-industrial. CAE would further strengthen strategic research and advisory services centered on major issues and problems facing CNOOC and the marine oil development in China, making greater contributions to the further enhancement of innovation capability of CNOOC, the development of the ocean energy science and technology as well as the implementation of the national ocean development strategy. 

Wang Yilin pointed out that, at present, CNOOC had taken efforts in the transformation from shallow to deep water, from upstream to integration among the upper, middle and lower industries, and from conventional energy forms to a combination of conventional energy, new energy and non-conventional energy forms. Therefore, CNOOC was looking forward to joining hands with the CAE in cooperative researches into technical difficulties restraining the development of marine oil industry, in strengthening collaborative innovation, in continuously boosting innovation in the marine oil science and technology sector, striving to realize better and faster development of marine oil industry in China, making bigger contributions to the implementation of the national energy security strategy and the strategy of building a powerful nation in terms of marine development, utilization, protection and management. (By Zhao Wencheng, October 2012; translated by Liu Chang)