According to Global Times article published on May 14, 2023, an offshore oil and gas platform weighing more than 15,000 tons has been successfully docked with a submarine jacket in the Pearl River Mouth Basin in South China's Guangdong Province on Sunday, China Media Group (CMG) reported.
The Enping 20-4 platform built by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) set a new weight record for China's offshore oil and gas platform dynamic positioning float-over installation, and filled a gap in domestic technology, CMG said.
The entire connecting task took about six hours to complete on Sunday. "It is like driving a super truck of over 220 meters long and 40 meters wide, or carrying 10,000 cars, back to a garage in the sea," Liu Huaxiang, a manager from CNOOC's Shenzhen branch, said in an interview with CMG.
The marginal error of both sides could not exceed 10 centimeters, which posed a significant challenge to the accuracy of design calculation, the reliability of dynamic positioning system and the technical level of engineers, Liu said.
Previously, such difficult connection tasks were dominated by foreign enterprises. Enping 20-4 platform's docking with submarine jacket was completed independently by Chinese companies for the first time, including design, calculation, simulation and construction.
The platform will enter its drilling operation phase and be put into production in the second half of this year, which is expected to become the largest offshore production platform in the Enping oilfield in the eastern part of the South China Sea. The crude oil produced will be transported through undersea pipelines to refineries along China's coast, the report said.
The Enping 20-4 platform is located in one of the oil fields with the fastest growth of crude oil output. When the Enping oil field enters full production, its peak annual output of crude oil will exceed 3.6 million tons - which will inject new impetus into China's economic and social development, according to CMG report.
CNOOC achieved a total oil and gas production of 120 million tons of oil equivalent in 2022, setting a record high, according to a report released by the company on Thursday.
