Major Policy Release: Marine Economy Exceeds 11 Trillion Yuan, Offshore Oil and Gas Exploitation Ent

Recently, Qiushi Journal published an important article titled "Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Marine Economy", outlining the core path for the development of China's marine economy. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the 2025 China Marine Economy Statistical Bulletin, which shows that the national marine GDP reached 11,018 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%, accounting for 7.9% of the total GDP, officially breaking the 11-trillion-yuan mark (Ministry of Natural Resources). Driven by both policy support and industrial breakthroughs, offshore oil and gas exploitation, a core sector of the marine economy, has ushered in new development opportunities and become a key engine driving the growth of the marine economy.

Strategic Orientation: Six Core Directions for Marine Economic Development

"Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Marine Economy" clarifies the overall thinking and six key tasks for marine economic development, laying a solid foundation for top-level design of industrial development.

Core Thinking: Adhere to innovation-driven development, efficient coordination, industrial upgrading, harmonious coexistence between human and the sea, and win-win cooperation, promote high-level self-reliance and self-improvement in marine science and technology, and build a modern marine industrial system.

Six Key Tasks:

(1) Strengthen top-level design and policy support, formulate the 15th Five-Year Plan for Marine Economic Development, guide the participation of social capital, and improve the fiscal, taxation and financial support system.

(2) Strengthen independent innovation in marine science and technology, cultivate leading marine technology enterprises and specialized, sophisticated, unique and new small and medium-sized enterprises, and break through bottlenecks in key core technologies.

(3) Strengthen, optimize and expand the marine industry, promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional marine industries, and expand emerging industries such as marine biomedicine and offshore wind power.

(4) Coordinate the planning of major bays, promote the green and digital-intelligent transformation of coastal port clusters, and optimize the spatial layout.

(5) Strengthen marine ecological and environmental protection, promote comprehensive management of key sea areas, explore marine carbon sink accounting, and achieve harmonious development between humans and the sea.

(6) Participate deeply in global marine governance, deepen international cooperation in the blue economy, and safeguard maritime rights and ecological security.

Scale Leap: The 11-Trillion-Level "Blue Engine" Boasts Strong Momentum

The marine economy reaching a scale of 11 trillion yuan in 2025 marks that China's marine economy has officially entered a new stage of high-quality development, with continuous optimization of industrial structure and significantly enhanced development resilience.

From the perspective of industrial structure, marine services accounted for 58.3%, with an added value of 6,424.0 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%, continuing to play the role of the main engine. The added value of the marine secondary industry was 4,101.7 billion yuan, an increase of 6.8%, among which the marine engineering equipment manufacturing industry grew by 10.2%, and the shipbuilding industry's added value increased by 25.1%. The international market share of the three core indicators exceeded 50%, ranking first in the world.

From the perspective of growth drivers, the added value of emerging marine industries increased by 7.3%, becoming the core driving force for industrial upgrading. Traditional industries are accelerating green and intelligent transformation, and the supply capacity of marine oil and gas resources continues to increase. In 2025, offshore crude oil and natural gas output increased by 3.4% and 17.0% year-on-year respectively. The increment of offshore crude oil accounted for nearly 70% of the national total crude oil increment, becoming an important support for energy security.

Core Breakthrough: Offshore Oil and Gas Exploitation Enjoys Dual Dividends of Policy and Technology

As the core pillar industry of the marine economy, offshore oil and gas exploitation has ushered in a golden development window under the triple support of strategic deployment, policy support and technological innovation.

Policy dividends continue to be released. In February 2026, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs and the State Taxation Administration jointly issued a policy, clarifying that imported equipment and instruments related to offshore oil and gas exploration and development will be exempted from tariffs during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, reducing enterprises' equipment investment costs and improving exploration and development efficiency. Meanwhile, the Energy Law has established the strategy of "equal emphasis on land and sea, increasing reserves and production", and the new Mineral Resources Law has promoted the institutional innovation of "integration of exploration and mining", simplifying procedures and encouraging enterprises to increase investment.

Fruitful exploration and development achievements. China has successively made major breakthroughs in the Bohai Sea and South China Sea, discovering billion-ton oilfields such as Huizhou 19-6 and Qinhuangdao 29-6, as well as several 100-billion-cubic-meter-class large gas fields. Major projects such as the first phase of Bozhong 26-6 Oilfield and the second phase of "Deep Sea No.1" have been put into operation, further consolidating the resource reserve foundation and promoting the expansion of offshore oil and gas exploitation to deep-water and deep-layer fields.

Technological innovation drives upgrading. Key technologies for deep-sea oil and gas exploration and development continue to break through. National strategic equipment such as "Deep Sea No.1" has achieved independent operation, and offshore oil and gas exploitation is gradually transforming to digitalization and intelligence. The three-dimensional and layered utilization technology of sea areas has been promoted, realizing efficient development of marine resources and providing technical support for the sustainable development of the industry.

Future Outlook: Building a New Ecosystem for the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry

With the in-depth advancement of the high-quality marine economic development strategy, offshore oil and gas exploitation will usher in three major development trends and become a core growth point driving marine economic growth.

First, the increase in reserves and production will continue to deepen, focusing on key sea areas such as the Bohai Sea and South China Sea, promoting deep-water exploration and efficiency enhancement of old oilfields, further increasing the proportion of offshore oil and gas output, and building a solid barrier for national energy security.

Second, technological innovation will accelerate iteration, breaking through key technologies such as deep-water drilling and enhanced oil recovery, and promoting the green, intelligent and efficient development of offshore oil and gas exploitation.

Third, industrial integration will improve quality and efficiency, promoting the integrated development of "offshore oil and gas + offshore wind power", "offshore oil and gas + marine carbon sink" and other models, and building a diversified and coordinated marine energy industrial system.

A thriving marine sector means a thriving country, and a strong marine sector means a strong country. The industrial scale of 11 trillion yuan is a new starting point, not the end. Under the guidance of the important article "Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Marine Economy", relying on policy support and technological innovation, offshore oil and gas exploitation will continue to unleash development potential, inject strong impetus into the high-quality development of the marine economy, help China accelerate the building of a strong maritime country, and achieve the strategic goal of becoming strong through the ocean.