FPSO with World's Largest Loading Capacity Delivered to Its Buyer

The P70, the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platform with the world's largest loading capacity, was delivered to its buyer in Brazil after an 18-month effort on Dec 4, according to China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

It was the second international level FPSO the company assembled after the P67 delivered in 2018, and was created in global record-breaking time for construction of extra-large FPSOs.

Delivery of the two FPSOs promotes strategic cooperation between China and Brazil, increases cooperation in energy fields between China and Belt and Road countries and accelerates the pace at which China's marine engineering equipment manufacturing industry goes global.

CNOOC said that the 300-meter long and 74-meter wide P70 has a deck area equal to three standard football pitches.

With a designed service period of 25 years, the facility can work in water as deep as 2,200 meters.

Its annual output equals 1/4 of the Daqing Oil Field's and it has a reserve oil quantity of 1.6 million buckets as well as a natural gas processing capacity of six million standard cubic feet per day.

With a maximum displacement of 350,000 tons, the facility is an ocean titan.

A key facility for development of offshore oil dubbed an "offshore oil and gas treatment plant", an FPSO is a large-scale offshore production infrastructure integrating production, storage and export as well as power supply.

Compared with other oil production platforms, an FPSO has stronger storm resistance capacity, a wider deepwater adaption area and larger capacity for storing and discharging oil.

Being able to move and be reused, the facility has become a main production mode of offshore oil development and is widely applicable to development of deepwater and shallow sea areas as well as marginal oil fields.

It is also titled "a pearl on the crown" as it is costly, hard to build and requires high internal integration.

CNOOC signed an agreement on design, purchase, and modular construction of some parts, as well as transportation and assembly, adjustment, towing and delivery of P67 and P70 in May, 2015.

P67, the first China-assembled world-class extra-large FPSO, was delivered to its buyer on May 16, 2018 in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province.

P70 is highly similar to P67 in its appearance, size and capacities, making the two like twins.

The high degree of integration, large construction load, short construction period and complicated engineering interface made the project difficult to complete.

For example, a total of 17 functional modules are installed on P70's deck, with the heaviest one, as high as a seven-storey building, weighing more than 2,600 tons. The modules are used in processing of seabed oil and gas.

About 45,000 tons of steel was needed to build P70, equal to the weight of more than 1,000 tanks; 1.5 million meters of cables, enough to stretch from Beijing to Shanghai, were also used.

Nearly a thousand people contributed to its construction and more than 190 innovative technological skills were upgraded and created.

Technologies such as visualization, digitalization and internet of things are at work in P70's smart interface management system, making it the most efficient of self-assembled facilities to be built in China.

P70 is also proof that China's high-end manufacturing capacity has reached an internationally-leading level.

According to CNOOC, P70 cannot navigate by itself and will be carried to Brazil by a semi-submersible carrier with the largest weight capacity in the world.

The facility will travel 12,000 nautical miles, transiting the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and reach the offshore oil field in southeast Brazil after about 45 days. At that time, P70 will begin working with P67.

Development of CNOOC's FPSO business improved the company's competitiveness in the high-end oceaneering industry and drove various traditional industries like electro-mechanics and metallurgy to go global.

For instance, 80 percent of P70’s components were domestically made and its purchase amount was about 380 million yuan ($54.05 million). In addition, more than 100 equipment manufacturers in China entered the international market by contributing to its construction.

CNOOC will continue to strengthen its core FPSO construction capacity and focus on innovative technology and management to push forward energy cooperation between China and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, contributing to the "going global" of China's oceaneering equipment.

P70 is placed on the semi-submersible carrier with the largest weight capacity in the world on Dec 4, ready to be shipped to Brazil. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

The 300-meter long and 74-meter wide P70 has a deck area equal to three standard football pitches. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

About 45,000 tons of steel were used to build P70. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Zhang Tianyuan)