The main hull structure of the Haiyang Shiyou 122 floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, Asia's first cylindrical FPSO independently designed and built by China, was completed on Aug 17 in Qingdao City, East China's Shandong Province, according to the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).
It marks a breakthrough in China's development of deepwater, ultra-large offshore oil and gas equipment.
With a maximum diameter of about 90 meters, the vessel has a main deck area equivalent to 13 standard basketball courts, a maximum displacement of 100,000 tons of water, and a maximum storage capacity of 60,000 tons of oil, enabling continuous operation at sea for 15 years without returning to dock.
The Haiyang Shiyou 122 adopts a new cylindrical structure design compared with the traditional ship structure, featuring low steel consumption, excellent overall stability, and strong ability to withstand harsh sea conditions, which effectively improves economic applicability.
To adapt to harsh sea conditions, the hull of the vessel adopts a double-bottom design, which consists of 123 segments, including 41 separate compartments, with a total weight of 27,000 tons.
Since the ship's segments are irregularly shaped, the center of gravity and installation of each segment are interdependent. After the hull is assembled, the main dimension tolerance needs to be controlled within 25 millimeters, which poses challenges to spatial planning, equipment and pipeline layout, and precision control.
The project team has resolved several technical challenges in the construction of the FPSO under typhoon sea conditions, from equipment system design to high-precision construction. It has managed to master eight key construction technologies, and innovatively adopted 3D simulation digital means. The project achieved success in one-time hull closure with tolerance not exceeding six millimeters, and precision control has reached advanced international levels.
Haiyang Shiyou 122 will enter final assembly and integration. Upon completion next year, it is expected to serve in the Liuhua Oilfield in the Pearl River Mouth Basin in South China's Guangdong Province. It will provide a new choice for the economical and efficient development of China's deepwater oil and gas fields.
(Executive editor: Xie Yunxiao)
