Chinese oil drilling firm Cosl looks to technology to help transformation drive
The company wants to end reliance on heavy equipment deployment for most of its revenues
China Oilfield Services Ltd (Cosl), the nation’s dominant offshore drilling services provider and sister firm of oil major CNOOC, aims to shed its image as an equipment-driven business to become more of a “technology-heavy” company, according to its chief executive.
To see that transformation through, the state-backed company will spend an equivalent of at least three per cent of its annual China revenue on technology upgrades to enhance exploration and production efficiency.
“Cosl has already built up a very sufficient level of capacity in equipment such as drilling rigs and other service vessels, and in the future we will focus our investment on technology, which should amount to at least 300 million yuan,” chief executive Qi Meisheng told reporters on Thursday.
Cosl’s revenue amounted to 15 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) in 2016 – the latest available annual figure – of which around two-thirds was from its domestic business and the rest overseas.
The company relies on the deployment of heavy equipment to earn around two-thirds of its revenues, with the rest from technology-driven services, Qi noted.
“We aim to change the split to half-half by 2020,” he said. “Technology can help us process and analyse data on undersea geological formations over areas spanning thousands of kilometres.”
