Center

Everything's ship-shape in huge Chinese project

(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2007-05-01 10:19

The 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. To put this into perspective, it equates to the size of three standard football fields.

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 ship will next be towed to Singapore, where the FPSO topside modules are being fabricated," said J.D. McColgin, president of ConocoPhillips Asia Pacific. "Once the modules are installed on the deck and integrated with the hull, they will be commissioned prior to the vessel's return to China in mid-2008."

The new FPSO is expected to be put into operation before the Beijing Olympic Games, company officials said. Shanghai Waigaoqiao signed a deal with ConocoPhillips China in March, 2005, to build the vessel.

COPC is cooperating with the China National Offshore Oil Corp in the Peng Lai project. It is a subsidiary of Houston-based ConocoPhillips Petroleum Company, the world's fourth-largest refiner.

Waigaoqiao expects the construction of FPSO vessels to further propel the country's ship-building industry.