COSL aims to build up fleet to meet demand

Meeting demand: COSL plans to build up to 50 offshore support vessels to meet the needs of parent company CNOOC to boost domestic oil and gas production

REUTERS/SCANPIX

By Xu Yihe

 20 September 2012 06:38 GMT

CHINA’S top offshore service provider China Oilfield Services Ltd (COSL) plans to build up to 50 offshore support vessels to meet domestic upstream demand, writes Xu Yihe.

The fleet additions will consist of platform support vessels and large anchor-handling tug supply vessels, for the deep-water market, as well as stand-by vessels, supply vessels, multi-purpose vessels and barges.

Industry sources said most of the units will be built at Chinese yards but the timing of tender processes is subject to a number of factors such as approval from COSL’s parent company China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

COSL’s new initiative is partly to meet the needs of CNOOC to boost domestic oil and gas production to 60.98 million tonnes of oil…

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