China's offshore oil and gas specialist CNOOC Ltd said it had started operations at two small oil and gas fields in Bohai Bay off northern China.

Bo Zhong 34-1 was producing more than 4,800 barrels of oil per day from seven wells, the state-run company said on its Web site www.cnoocltd.com.

There are more than 20 producing wells in the new field, and the rest of the wells would come on stream in 2008, with peak daily output expected to reach 12,000 barrels, the company said.

CNOOC had also started operations at Jin Zhou 21-1, which was pumping 3.53 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from one well, the company said late last week.

The peak daily production of JZ 21-1 was designed at 11 million cubic feet of natural gas from three wells and 1,000 barrels of oil from two wells, it said.

Both fields are fully owned by CNOOC Ltd.