Major Policy News: China's marine economy exceeds 11 trillion yuan, ushering in a golden era for offshore oil and gas exploration

Recently, Qiushi Journal published an important article titled Promoting High-Quality Development of the Marine Economy, setting the core development path for China's marine economy. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Natural Resources released the 2025 China Marine Economic Statistical Bulletin. The data shows that China's total marine economic output reached 11.018 trillion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%, accounting for 7.9% of the national GDP, officially crossing the 11-trillion-yuan threshold. Driven by favorable policies and industrial breakthroughs, offshore oil and gas exploitation, a core sector of the marine economy, has embraced new development opportunities and become a key engine fueling marine economic growth.

Strategic Orientation: Six Core Priorities for Marine Economic Development

The article Promoting High-Quality Development of the Marine Economy clarifies the general philosophy and six key tasks for marine economic development, forming a solid top-level design for the industry.

Core Philosophy: Adhere to innovation-driven development, efficient coordination, industrial upgrading, harmony between humanity and the sea, and win-win cooperation. Strive for greater self-reliance and strength 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 marine economic development plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, guide the participation of social capital, and improve the fiscal, taxation and financial support system.
2. Boost independent innovation in marine science and technology, foster leading marine tech enterprises as well as specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative SMEs, and make breakthroughs in core technological bottlenecks.
3. Expand and optimize marine industries. Advance the transformation and upgrading of traditional marine industries, and expand emerging sectors such as marine biomedicine and offshore wind power.
4. Conduct integrated planning for major bay areas, promote the green and digital transformation of coastal port clusters, and optimize spatial distribution.
5. Enhance marine ecological protection, carry out comprehensive treatment of key sea areas, explore marine carbon sink accounting, and realize harmonious coexistence between humanity and the sea.
6. Deepen participation in global marine governance, expand international cooperation on the blue economy, and safeguard marine rights and interests as well as ecological security.

Expanding Scale: The 11-Trillion-Yuan "Blue Engine" Grows Stronger

The 11-trillion-yuan scale marks that China's marine economy has entered a new stage of high-quality development, with continuously optimized industrial structure and greatly enhanced development resilience.

In terms of industrial structure, the marine service sector accounts for 58.3%, with an added value of 6.424 trillion yuan, up 5.1% year on year, continuing to act as the primary growth engine. The secondary marine industry achieved an added value of 4.1017 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.8%. Specifically, the marine engineering equipment manufacturing sector rose by 10.2%, and the shipbuilding industry posted a 25.1% growth in added value. The international market shares of the three core indicators all exceed 50%, ranking first worldwide.

In terms of growth drivers, the added value of emerging marine industries increased by 7.3%, serving as a core driving force for industrial upgrading. Traditional industries are accelerating their shift toward green and intelligent operation. The capacity to secure marine oil and gas supplies keeps improving. In 2025, China's offshore crude oil and natural gas output rose by 3.4% and 17.0% year on year respectively. Offshore crude oil output growth contributed nearly 70% to the national total, providing strong support for national energy security.

Core Breakthroughs: Offshore Oil and Gas Exploitation Gains Dual Dividends from Policies and Technologies

As a pillar industry of the marine economy, offshore oil and gas exploitation has entered a golden development period backed by strategic arrangements, supportive policies and technological innovation.

Sustained policy dividends: In February 2026, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs and the State Taxation Administration jointly issued policies, stipulating that import tariffs on equipment and instruments for offshore oil and gas exploration and development will be exempted during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. This move cuts enterprises' equipment investment costs and improves exploration and development efficiency. Meanwhile, the Energy Law has established the strategy of attaching equal importance to land and sea resources and boosting reserves and output. The revised Mineral Resources Law promotes the reform of the integrated exploration and production system to streamline procedures and encourage more corporate investment.

Fruitful exploration and development achievements: China has made major breakthroughs successively in the Bohai Sea and South China Sea. Multiple 100-million-ton oilfields including Huizhou 19-6 and Qinhuangdao 29-6, as well as several large gas fields with reserves exceeding 100 billion cubic meters, have been discovered. Major projects such as the Phase I of Bozhong 26-6 Oilfield and the Phase II of Deep Sea No.1 have been put into operation, further consolidating resource reserves and driving offshore oil and gas exploitation toward deep water and deep strata.

Upgrading driven by technological innovation: Key technologies for deep-sea oil and gas exploration and development have seen constant breakthroughs. National major facilities including Deep Sea No.1 have achieved independent operation, and offshore oil and gas exploitation is advancing toward digitalization and intellectualization. Technologies for three-dimensional layered utilization of sea areas have been optimized to realize efficient exploitation of marine resources, guaranteeing the sustainable development of the industry.

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

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

First, efforts to expand reserves and raise output will continue. Focusing on key sea areas including the Bohai Sea and South China Sea, China will press ahead with deep-water exploration and efficiency improvement of mature oilfields, further increase the proportion of offshore oil and gas output, and strengthen the barrier for national energy security.

Second, technological innovation will accelerate. Breakthroughs will be made in key technologies such as deep-water drilling and enhanced oil recovery, to make offshore oil and gas exploitation greener, smarter and more efficient.

Third, industrial integration will improve quality and efficiency. Integrated development models such as "offshore oil & gas plus offshore wind power" and "offshore oil & gas plus marine carbon sinks" will be promoted to build a diversified and coordinated marine energy industrial system.

A prosperous sea makes a prosperous nation; a strong sea makes a strong nation. The 11-trillion-yuan industrial scale is a new starting point rather than an end. Guided by the important article on promoting high-quality marine economic development, and supported by favorable policies and technological innovation, offshore oil and gas exploitation will continuously unleash its development potential. It will inject robust momentum into the high-quality development of the marine economy, help accelerate the construction of a maritime power and fulfill the strategic goal of pursuing development through the sea.