China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced on March 12 the completion of Haiji-2, the first deepwater jacket in Asia.
Its completion proved China's capacity in independently building a deepwater ultra-large jacket platform, which is of great significance to promoting development of the country's deepwater oil and gas energy.
The fixed jacket platform is the most widely used marine oil and gas development equipment in the world, which mainly consists of a jacket, piles and upper modules.
It is the "foundation" to support and fix the huge and heavy body of an offshore oil and gas platform.
With a total height of 338.5 meters and a total weight of 37,000 metric tons, the Haiji-2 jacket has an average operational water depth of approximately 324 meters.
To reduce the weight of the ultra-large platform, a new-type 420-MPa high-strength steel was developed and used for the first time in such an offshore platform. Using the new material reduced shipbuilding the cost of material and ship renovation and verified that domestically made high-strength steel can be widely used in marine engineering.
During construction of the Haiji-2 platform, a smart jacket design and construction plan was made in order to build Haiji-2 into the first digital jacket in Asia installed with the external current cathodic protection, digital twin, marine environment detection and seabed environment monitoring systems.
The plan not only improved the digital and healthy operation and maintenance technology of the deepwater jacket, but also has significant importance for enhancing production and operational stability and the intelligent digital risk warning function of the digital level of deep-sea oil and gas facility.
According to CNOOC, with the continuous development of offshore oil and gas resources, the deepwater area below 200 meters is becoming a crucial battlefield for offshore oil and gas development in China.
The Haiji-2 platform is expected to play a key role in the development of deep-sea oil and gas resources.
The operation depth of the Haiji-2 jacket exceeds 300 meters, which will greatly lower development investment and costs of engineering and production, beating a path for economical and effective development of China's deepwater oil and gas resources.
CNOOC said that the Haiji-2 platform is scheduled to start offshore installation soon. It will contribute to development of the Liuhua 11-1/4-1 oilfield in the Pearl River Mouth Basin, China's first deepwater oilfield, intending to revitalize the deepwater oilfield with 100 million capacity and inject new power into the economic and social development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
(Executive editor: Zhu Zeya)
