Photo taken on June 13, 2015 shows the Xingwang deep-sea semi-submersible drilling platform at Liwan3-2 gasfield in the South China Sea, south China. China's largest offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC Ltd. announced on July 3, 2015 that its Xingwang deep-sea semi-submersible drilling platform has started drilling at 1,300 meters underwater level in Liwan 3-2 gas field in the South China Sea. (Xinhua/Zhao Liang)

The P70, the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platform with the world's highest loading capacity, made by the China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), was put into use in the eastern section of Brazil's Santos Basin, according to Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras. 

The P70 platform has the capacity to process up to 150,000 barrels of oil daily and treat up to 6 million cubic meters of natural gas, the company said.

The unit will operate about 200 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro at a depth of 2,300 meters, with a forecast interconnection between up to eight producing and eight injection wells, said Petrobras.

Notably, affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in Brazil, the project's commissioning activities were temporarily suspended. The CNOOC maintained close communication with Petrobras, assisting with project resumption, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

The CNOOC had shipped materials to Brazil before the country's COVID-19 outbreak, ensuring the smooth resumption of the project and production, the report said, citing a senior manager at Petrobras.

Putting the P70 into use is expected to further boost China's cooperation with Belt and Road countries in the energy sector and accelerate the internationalization of China's offshore equipment manufacturing industry.

CNOOC's FPSO business has enhanced the company's competitiveness in the high-end ocean engineering industry and driven the internationalization of various traditional industries like electro-mechanics and metallurgy.

For instance, 80 percent of the P70's components were domestically made and its purchase price was about 380 million yuan ($53.7 million), according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration of the State Council, China's state asset regulator.

China Offshore Oil Engineering Co (COOEC), a subsidiary of the CNOOC, undertook the detailed design, procurement, construction and transport of some modules, as well as the integration, commissioning, towing and delivery of Petrobras' "sister vessels" the P67 and P70 FPSO platforms in May 2015. 

In May 2018, the P67 was successfully delivered to Petrobras in Qingdao, a pioneer in the independent integration and successful delivery of world-class, super-large FPSO platforms in China, said the CNOOC.

In recent years, the CNOOC has undertaken many international large-scale engineering projects, including the Russia Yamal LNG Project and the Brazil FPSO P67/P70, as well as many domestic deepwater oil and gas field projects including Lingshui 17-2, and Liuhua 29-1, said the CNOOC.

An FPSO is a comprehensive, large-scale offshore production facility which integrates production, processing, storage, transportation, living and power supply. It is widely suitable for the development of oil fields in deep sea away from the coast, shallow sea and marginal oil fields.

Global Times