Successful Erection of the Largest Deepwater Oilfield Jacket with International Cooperation

Date：2023-04-18

On April 12th, Lufeng 12-3 deepwater jacket, which was constructed by Offshore Oil Engineering Co., Ltd., was successfully launched by sliding and precisely located in the eastern part of the South China Sea, setting a new depth record of offshore jacket based on Sino-foreign cooperation.

The Lufeng 12-3 deepwater jacket, standing at an height of 265 meters and weighing over 24,000 tons, has been successfully installed in a sea area with a depth of approximately 240 meters，which is located more than 260 kilometers southeast of Shenzhen. This represents the first time a fixed jacket has been installed in a mid-deepwater area as a part of Sino-foreign oilfield development projects.

The successful positioning of the offshore jacket in under 18 hours was the result of a coordinated effort involving a number of offshore engineering vessels, including the "Haiyang Shiyou 229," which is the largest launch barge in Asia, and the "Blue Whale," the second largest single-cantilever floating crane in Asia, using the sliding launch mode. Additionally, several innovative technologies, such as the Solitary Wave Early Warning Mechanism, buoyancy tanks, and adaptive mudmat, were employed in the project.

The Lufeng 12-3 oilfield development project is the most extensive oilfield cooperation project in the South China Sea during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. It represents the first collaboration between CNOOC and Korea SK in China. COOEC achieved significant breakthroughs in critical technologies during the jacket's construction, including the establishment of a reference network, temperature compensation, earth curvature correction, and launching way subsidence monitoring. These achievements have offered a "Chinese approach" to the worldwide construction of deepwater equipment.