CNOOC Chemical: The "Triple Play" of Digital and Intelligent Supply Assurance, Painting a New Picture for Spring Farming

(Source: China Electric Power News)

Transferred from: China Electric Power News

Reporter: Qu Yi, China Energy News

In March, during the spring equinox, the first batch of tender mulberry leaves has already filled bamboo baskets in Qionghai, Hainan. The warm sun shines through the photovoltaic panels in the protein mulberry planting base, casting mottled shadows across the fields, where rows of mulberry seedlings are thriving. Grower Yang Xu’s face is beaming with the joy of a bountiful harvest. Meanwhile, wheat fields in North China are newly sown, and the frozen soil in Northeast China awaits spring plowing. From the warm early spring in the south to the poised black soil in the north, China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s “Fudao” fertilizer carries the hope of harvest, traveling day and night to fields across the country.

Spring plowing waits for no one, and farming time is as precious as gold. With the call of the central government’s No. 1 document for 2026, China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s subsidiary, China National Offshore Oil Chemical Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “China National Offshore Oil Chemistry”), as a key player in fertilizer supply assurance, tightly focuses on the entire chain of production, delivery, and service, based on a foundation of responsibility and leveraging digital intelligence to vigorously play a “triple concerto” for agricultural supply assurance in spring plowing.

Intelligent production, driven by digital engines, establishes a “new paradigm” for stable output

“This year’s spring plowing supply assurance relies not only on physical strength but also on intellectual strength.”

Entering the central control room of the fertilizer department at China National Offshore Oil Chemistry’s Fudao Company, the person in charge pointed to a digital screen showcasing lean management: “This is our newly launched ‘Fudao AI Intelligence’ module.” On the screen, data from thousands of key monitoring points like temperature, pressure, and flow is being collected and analyzed in real-time.

China National Offshore Oil Chemistry’s Fudao Company merges cutting-edge digital technology with refined operations, transforming frontline workers from mere operators who read gauges into production “stewards” who understand business and can calculate costs. Operators adjust process parameters precisely based on real-time cost analyses, achieving a transition from “operating by experience” to “optimizing by data.” This digital engine not only ensures that Fudao Company maintains a “zero accident” safety record during the peak of spring plowing but also achieves full capacity release—setting a record for continuous operation of 543 days for the ammonia synthesis unit in the first phase of fertilizer production, seizing a precious time window for stable fertilizer supply during the critical period of spring plowing.

Similarly, with “intellectual” stability in production, China National Offshore Oil Chemistry’s Hubei Dayukou Company saw its monoammonium phosphate production increase by 29% year-on-year in February, achieving a “positive start” for the new year 2026. Technicians pointed to the gray-white filter cake and explained, “Last year, what piled up into a mountain of waste is now the ‘staple’ of production. By innovating our processes, we repurposed the accumulated filter cake waste as raw material, enhancing production efficiency and adding a green development aspect to fertilizer supply assurance.”

Intelligent logistics, streamlining transport for “high efficiency”

Producing fertilizer is essential, but it must also be transported quickly and efficiently.

At 5 a.m., at the China National Offshore Oil Chemistry’s Baisuo Port Terminal in Dongfang City, Hainan Province, cargo ships are arriving one after another, and containers are stacked neatly like mountains, with the intelligent logistics system operating efficiently. The Baisuo Port Terminal has introduced a container intelligent dispatch system that replaces manual operations with automation and significantly improves the transfer efficiency of spring plowing materials through a multi-modal transport model of “sea + rail + short-distance transport.”

“This year, we successfully opened multiple efficient transport routes from Baisuo to Fangchenggang, Chaoshan, and others, vigorously promoting the ‘bulk to container’ model, greatly enhancing transport efficiency,” the head of the logistics center at Baisuo Port of China National Offshore Oil Chemistry explained. In February, the company’s containerized urea transportation volume increased by 50% year-on-year, addressing the pain points of low efficiency in bulk shipping, pollution, and moisture-related caking. The company also collaborated deeply with Hainan Railway Co., optimizing railcar scheduling and loading and unloading processes to achieve seamless “station-to-station” connections for urea boxcars. By leveraging GPS and Internet of Things technologies, they constructed a full-tracking network to monitor transport nodes in real-time, dynamically optimizing routes to ensure each bag of fertilizer is delivered safely and on time to the fields.

Smart agricultural chemistry, services reaching the fields unlock the “golden key” to high yields

The delivery of fertilizers is just the starting point; the scientific solutions tailored for crops and attentive services rooted in the fields are crucial for helping farmers increase yields.

In Hainan, with the rise of the photovoltaic industry, the “mulberry-photovoltaic complementary” model has become a “key” to resolving land use conflicts and improving barren soil, driven by deep empowerment from technological agricultural chemistry. A year ago, grower Yang Xu recognized the idle land under the photovoltaic panels in Hainan and wanted to try planting protein mulberries on four plots of sandy saline-alkali land. However, as a newcomer to agriculture, he didn’t even understand urea fertilizer, let alone how to utilize the barren soil under the photovoltaic panels. Facing planting difficulties, Yang Xu reached out to the agricultural chemistry team from the marketing division of China National Offshore Oil Chemistry in South China.

The team went deep into the fields, accurately identifying the two main challenges of “saline-alkalinity” and “low light,” and innovatively launched the “Fudao Protein Mulberry Special Program.” The program not only adapts to the shading characteristics of the photovoltaic panels but cleverly turns them into a natural umbrella for the mulberry trees. During this period, the team also assisted Yang Xu in hiring experts to tackle tricky pest issues.

Now, the mulberry fields under the photovoltaic panels are lush and green, with plant heights exceeding 30 centimeters, and the planting scale has expanded to multiple bases in Wenchang and Qionghai. The “soil testing - program customization - dynamic tracking” full-process service model of China National Offshore Oil Chemistry’s agricultural chemistry team has led Yang Xu to exclaim, “Thanks to the support of technological agricultural chemistry, we can achieve ‘mulberry-photovoltaic complementarity,’ turning this barren land into ‘golden nuggets.’”

Stories of such assistance to farmers by China National Offshore Oil continue to unfold across more fields.

In the chili fields of Nanbao Town, Lingao County, Hainan Province, China National Offshore Oil Chemistry’s agricultural chemistry team conducted soil testing and recommended Fudao slow-release fertilizer to farmer Lao Fu, helping his chili plants survive the cold wave. Lao Fu smiled broadly, saying, “Thanks to the fertilizer recommended by the experts!”

In the banana base of Chengmai County, Hainan, grower Brother Li has used China National Offshore Oil’s “Fudao” fertilizer for five consecutive years, increasing his yield by 5% per mu and saving tens of thousands of yuan in agricultural costs each year, praising it as “effectively comparable to imported fertilizers, at a reasonable price.”

In the rice demonstration area in Guangxi, at a unique “reduce fertilizer, increase efficiency” yield measurement meeting, farmer Lao Wu looked at the data in disbelief: “Three hundred kilograms! It really broke three hundred!” He immediately ordered fertilizer for fifty mu for next year. Meanwhile, agricultural expert Dr. Geng Guotao from Hainan University, holding two heavy bundles of rice ears, carefully explained to the farmers, “Good fertilizer isn’t about quantity; it’s about having the right formula and timing, hitting the crops at the ‘sweet spot’!”

In recent years, China National Offshore Oil Chemistry has built a cross-regional, specialized agricultural chemistry service team, conducting hundreds of agricultural technology demonstration activities each year, bringing free soil testing and scientific fertilization services to farmers. By continuously promoting precise agricultural chemistry, more land is rejuvenated.

In Guangxi’s rice demonstration area, the yield reached 815 kilograms per mu, with a 33% increase, generating over 525 yuan per mu; in Guangdong’s Shanwei Fudao demonstration field, the yield reached 501.75 kilograms per mu, with a 13.3% increase, resulting in an economic benefit of 211.41 yuan per mu… A series of data witness the transformation of Chinese farmers from “relying on nature” to “increasing income through technology,” and also mark the footsteps of China National Offshore Oil in empowering agricultural modernization through technology.

“Sowing a single grain in spring, reaping thousands in autumn.” In the tide of accelerating the development of new productive forces and comprehensively promoting rural revitalization, China National Offshore Oil, through its new model of fertilizer supply assurance of “intelligent production control, intelligent logistics connection, and intelligent agricultural chemistry service,” is safeguarding spring plowing in 2026, striving to write a responsive answer to ensuring national food security and firmly holding China’s “rice bowl” in the vivid practice of “storing grain in the land and storing grain in technology.”

Editor: Jiang Pengxin