“Sister Vessels” Lightens China Ocean Engineering Manufacturing Brand
The World-class "Offshore Oil and Gas Treatment Plant” Is Delivered to Brazil

Date：2019-12-26

After 18 months of effort, the world's largest FPSO (floating production and storage and offloading equipment) P70 independently integrated by China was successfully delivered to the owner in Brazil on December 4 at Qingdao Site of COOEC, creating the new speed of international super-large FPSO delivery. This is also the successful delivery of another world-class FPSO of COOEC after P67 in the last year. The delivery of the “sister vessels” P67 and P70 will not only bridge the strategic cooperation between China and Brazil in energy field, but also further strengthen the cooperation between China and the countries along “The Belt and Road Initiative” in energy field and assist China ocean engineering equipment manufacturing industry to speed up the “stepping-out” strategy.

As the key equipment for developing offshore oil, FPSO is a comprehensive large-scale offshore production facility which integrates production, processing, storage, transportation, living and power supply, and is called “offshore oil and gas treatment plant”. Compared with other oil production platforms, FPSO is characterized by strong wind and wave resistance, wide water depth, large oil storage and offloading capacity, transferability and reuse. It is widely suitable for the development of oil fields in deep sea away from the coast, shallow sea and marginal oil fields. It has become the main production mode of offshore oil and gas field development. It has been called “the bright pearl on the crown” in oil industry field due to its high cost, high construction difficulty, and high degree of integration.

COOEC undertook the detailed design, procurement, construction and transport of some modules, integration, commissioning, towing and delivery of the whole ship of the “sister vessels” P67 and P70 FPSOs of Petrobras in May 2015. On May 16, 2018, P67 was successfully delivered to Petrobras in Qingdao, pioneering in the independent integration and successful delivery of world-class super-large FPSO in China.

As the “sister vessel” of P67, P70 delivered this time is highly similar to the “sister” in appearance, size and ability. They can be called the “twins” in FPSO field. P70 has a total length of over 300 m, total width of about 74 m and deck area equal to 3 standard football fields. With the designed life of 25 years, operation depth of 2,200 m, annual production equal to that of 1/4 Daqing Oilfield, oil storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels, natural gas treatment capacity of standard 6,000,000 m3/day, and the maximum discharge capacity of 350,000 t, it can be called the “jumbo” at sea.

During the construction and integration, COOEC has completed more than 190 technical innovations and process innovations successively, and has innovatively applied the intelligentized interface management system, realized the dynamic and standardized management of FPSO with the help of visualization, digitization, Internet of Things and other technologies, and refreshed the speed record of independently integrating FPSO of the equivalent scale in China, marking that the high-end ocean engineering manufacturing capacity of China reaches an international advanced level.

P70 itself is powerless, so it will be transported to Brazil by “waterless dragging” in the mode of “ship carrying ship” by the world's largest semi-submersible transport vessel - “Pioneer”. P70 will sail 12,000 sea miles to Brazil through the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean in about 45 days. Upon arrival in Brazil, P70 will work together with its “sister vessel” P67 in Santos subsalt oilfield in the southeast waters of Brazil.

The development of FPSO business of CNOOC not only enhanced its overall strength in the high-end ocean engineering field, but also promoted the internationalization of many traditional national industries, such as electromechanics, metallurgy, etc.

Yu Yi, the Chairman of the Company, said that in the competitive South American floating body market, CNOOC has been a famous brand in China ocean engineering manufacturing industry, thus laying a good foundation for the Company to make continuous efforts in developing high-end ocean engineering construction and expanding the international ocean engineering market. In future, CNOOC will continually strengthen the construction of FPSO core capacity, strengthen technical innovation and management innovation, and contribute to promoting the cooperation between China and the countries along “The Belt and Road Initiative” in energy field and helping the active “stepping-out” of the ocean engineering equipment manufacturing industry in China.

Photo 1: Panoramic View of the Working Site

Photo 2: Waterless Dragging Site of P70