Chinese yard ready to christen South China Sea FPSO as first oil nears

SK Innovation is pushing for the first oil at its Lufeng 12-3 oilfield in the Pearl River Mouth basin in the South China Sea in the second half this year, with the South Korean independent and Chinese contractors working flat out to complete the production facilities.

China Merchants Group building its global FPSO prowess

Read more

China Merchants Heavy Industry is adding the final touches to the hull and living quarters of the Hai Yang Shi You 123 floating production, storage and offloading vessel before mechanical completion on 15 May, while the christening and sailaway are scheduled for the second week of June.

The topsides and mooring system were separately built by Nanhai Engineering, owned by CNOOC Energy Technology & Services (CenerTech) and Penglai Jutal Offshore Engineering under a subcontract with Bluewater.

The 100,000 deadweight tonne floater is designed to accommodate 80 people and supply power to the field’s wellhead platform.

The FPSO will be turret-moored in a water depth of 240 metres and equipped with facilities to treat wastewater produced from the platform. It will have storage capacity for 650,000 barrels of oil and production capacity of 70,000 barrels per day.

Meanwhile, SK Innovation and Chinese yard Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC) have completed construction of topsides modules for the wellhead platform to be installed at the field.

The two four-decked modules carry a total steel weight of 6725 tonnes. The living quarters are able to accommodate 90 people. The modules were built at a yard in Zhuhai city of southern China’s Guangdong province, which is jointly owned by COOEC and US contractor Fluor.

Lufeng 12-3 is being jointly developed by SK Innovation and CNOOC Ltd, with the South Korean company acting as operator.

The development plan envisages crude being produced via an unmanned wellhead platform with oil flowing by a 2.9-kilometre, 10-inch diameter subsea pipeline to the FPSO.