Blaming delays at its Bohai Sea joint-venture project with Conoco Phillips, CNOOC Chairman Fu Chengyu said fuel output levels would decline after this year. But he said the company expected oil and gas output to rise up to possibly 146m barrels of oil equivalent (boe), a 19% increase on2004 levels. Explaining the Bohai situation, Fu said the geology of the undersea fields had proven more complex than first assumed.