BP has a long history of exploration on the South China margin (SCM). Due to its proximity to one of the world’s biggest energy markets, the region offers a huge prize for those successful explorers. To date greater than 5 Bboe of oil and gas have been discovered along the margin. BP (and its heritage companies Amoco and Arco) has been an active explorer on the SCM over the past 4 decades, discovering the Yacheng 13-1 and Liuhua 11-1 fields. Alongside these discoveries, there have also been a number of dry wells which reflect various subsurface challenges along the margin. We shall present various insights from BP’s exploration campaigns on the margin and integrate these with learnings from crustal and basin modelling.

In recent years exploration focus has stepped out into deep water provinces which bring both new opportunities and new challenges. Understanding crustal structure and its implications on both palaeobathymetry and heatflow in distal margin domains is a key focus for many explorers and researchers. These factors are both fundamental to predicting source rock presence and deposition, and subsequent maturity; both of which are critical for future exploration success on the SCM. Using various margin modelling tool kits and insights from past exploration campaigns we will discuss the opportunities and risks associated with exploration along the margin.