Remote control production renovation has been completed at the Shenhai Yihao Energy Station, the world's first 100,000-metric ton deepsea semi-submersible oil production and storage platform independently developed by China, according to an announcement by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) on April 10.
It is the world's first platform of its kind to be equipped with remote control production capacity, which is able to maintain continuous safe and stable production even when faced with typhoons.
A view of the Shenhai Yihao Energy Station, the world's first 100,000-metric ton deepsea semi-submersible oil storage platform independently developed by China, operating in Shenhai Yihao, the world’s first large-scale ultra-deepwater gas field independently explored and developed by China [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
Shenhai Yihao, where the platform operates, is the world's first large-scale ultra-deepwater gas field, independently explored and developed by China. Located in the southeastern area of Hainan Island, it has a maximum operating depth of more than 1,500 meters and can produce 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.
The oil field has produced over 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas and exported over 450,000 cubic meters of condensate since it was put into operation on June 25, 2021.
What's more, a complete operation and maintenance technology system for ultra-deepwater gas fields has been developed at the field, which has solved a number of production and operation problems in this domain.
According to staff members working at Shenhai Yihao field, the production facility has now reached the best operating condition and the greatest remaining challenge for stable production of the gas field are the frequent summer and autumn typhoons.
People working on the production platform would leave before a typhoon comes, making it hard to maintain normal operation during extreme weather.
Remote-control production renovation is expected to reduce the typhoons' impact and enable the platform to continue to work all through typhoon season. As a result, the gas field is expected to gain more than 60 million cubic meters of natural gas annually, which is enough for 470,000 households for a year.
While renovating the remote-control production function, various kinds of digital intelligent technological exploratory applications were carried out in the gas field, making Shenhai Yihao into a smart ultra-deepwater gas field and a technology-leading industry demonstration benchmark.
CNOOC said that technological experts will be able to monitor operations of the gas field at the production and operation center through a digital twin model of the field and carry out remote diagnosis of equipment errors.
What's more, a three-dimensional security system covering the above and underwater areas has been established by upgrading sound and light detection intelligent monitoring equipment.
Relying on application of the 5G technology at the platform, a 5G-centered industrial internet of things application scenario has been formed at the Shenhai Yihao Energy Station, realizing connectivity between all kinds of devices and enabling worker control of the operation of the platform in real time through a 5G intelligent mobile terminal.
The Shenhai Yihao Energy Station is a large-scale comprehensive research and experiment platform in which scientific work focused on mooring management of semi-submersible platform hulls, dynamic monitoring of deepsea gas reservoir development, deepsea underwater mobility guarantees and visualization management of deepsea production and operation are carried out.
Meanwhile, CNOOC also joined hands with domestic and foreign research institutes, colleges and universities to advance digital and intelligent research and applications on an ultra-deepsea gas field, aiming to enhance the core competitiveness of China's deepsea energy industry and promote high-quality development of the offshore oil and gas industry.
(Executive editor: Xie Yunxiao)
