Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding has delivered the hull of the nation’s biggest FPSO — floating production, storage and offloading — vessel (not the biggest ship for which title there are several contenders) to ConocoPhillips China. This is the largest of its type — and the most expensive ship China has ever built. The 300,000-deadweight-ton vessel cost around $230 million. The illustration is of the shipyard, not of the vessel itself.
The ship, named Hai Yang Shi You 117, is among the largest of its type in the world. ‘The ship used the most advanced technologies in the world,’ said Wang Qi, assistant to the president of the Shanghai shipyard. ‘Its timely delivery marks Waigaoqiao becoming a qualified subcontractor in the global offshore engineering industry.’
Besides being able to load and process raw crude, and to store and offload stabilized crude, an FPSO vessel can also serve as the production unit for an offshore crude or natural gas exploration project.
This new FPSO vessel, which can store as much as two million barrels of crude oil, will be used at China’s largest offshore oil field, Peng Lai 19-3, located in Bohai Bay in the country’s northeast.
The vessel is 323 meters long and 63 meters wide. The depth of the hull is 32.5 meters and the distance from the bottom to the chimney is 71 meters, which is as high as a 24-floor building.
The new FPSO is expected to be put into operation before the Beijing Olympic Games.
Source: China.or.cn
