China's Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC) is set to deliver in mid-January the world's first deep-water semi-submersible production platform with liquids storage facilities.

The unit is destined for the Lingshui 17-2 gas field in the South China Sea's Qiongdongnan basin.

Delivery is scheduled for 12 January, with sailaway expected four days later.

This follows the floater's hull and topsides integration at CIMC Raffles in Yantai city last October using the giant crane Taisun.

In late November, COOEC completed installation of the pulleys for the steel catenary riser (SCR).

Yard sources said the Lingshui platform will be fine-tuned, commissioned and hooked up with the subsea production system once it reaches location in February so as to meet the schedule for first gas on 25 June.

It is the world’s first deep-water semisub production floater with condensate storage facilities.

The floater features 11,300 square metres of deck space and carried a total steel weight of 33,000 tonnes. The topsides weigh 8480 tonnes.

The topsides is made of 23 deck blocks, 200 oil and gas processing facilities units and living quarters for up to 120 people.

The platform will be anchored to the seabed via 16 legs, while the project also features a cable mooring system and SCR, as well as a 95-kilometre subsea pipeline.

Last September, COOEC completed installation of the first SCR to connect the subsea pipeline to the semisub.

UK company Subsea 7 was subcontracted to install the remaining SCRs and 70 kilometres of umbilicals provided by Oslo-listed Aker Solutions, as well as other subsea facilities such as mooring piles and manifolds.

Belgium-based maritime contractor Jan De Nul Group will soon send its newly acquired offshore construction and cable-lay vessel Connector to transport Lingshui’s umbilicals from Norway to the South China Sea.

Lingshui 17-2 is being exploited by an 11-well subsea production system, with one manifold in the west and three in the east of the field, all tied back to the semi-submersible production platform.

CNOOC Ltd pegs Lingshui 17-2’s reserves at about 136 billion cubic metres of recoverable gas, with initial production forecast to be 3.25 Bcm per annum of gas and 1400 cubic metres per day of condensate.

Field Development

COOEC ready to deliver giant Lingshui floater