【Major Chemical Equipment Innovations】499—2022: The world’s largest natural gas processing platform built in China
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This post was last edited by Desert Fish on 2022-8-17 at 21:41. In the Qidong Marine Engineering and Shipbuilding Industrial Park, located on the north side of the Yangtze River estuary, a giant marine vessel is in the final stages prior to delivery. Soon after, it will set out on trials in coastal waters, followed by a three-month long journey to a world-class liquefied natural gas (LNG) project located across the maritime border between Mauritania and Senegal in West Africa. This is one of the most complex and time-consuming offshore engineering projects ever undertaken by Chinese shipbuilding companies to date. The world’s largest natural gas processing platform built in China, this facility will be capable of processing 500 million standard cubic feet of natural gas per day; the amount produced each day is sufficient to meet the needs of all residents in Shanghai for 2–3 days. Its maximum displacement is around 320,000 tons, and its oil storage capacity is no less than 1.44 million barrels. If such an oil and gas processing plant were built on land, it would require at least 800,000 square meters. But \"Concentrate\" is a mega-project at sea; its area is only equivalent to that of two football fields combined, and its height is about that of a 10-story building – which illustrates the complexity of integrating the necessary technologies and equipment. Imagine the density of dots on a piece of paper covered in dots after folding it 6 times in a row.
As offshore oil and gas exploration moves toward deeper waters, the cost of laying long-distance oil and gas transmission pipelines is increasing. With oil and gas processing plants placed directly at sea, the market for such offshore equipment known as Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading units (FPSOs) is expanding rapidly. After the discovery in 2015 of an gas field spanning two African maritime boundaries, the multinational energy giant BP signed agreements with both countries to develop the first phase of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) gas project, to be operated by BP. Deezenib Energy, one of the world’s largest oil and gas engineering companies, collaborated with Qidong COSCO Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Qidong Marine), which is part of China COSCO Shipping Group, to undertake the design and construction of the FPSO, the core facility for Phase 1 of the GTA project. This FPSO is set to be delivered and put into service after overcoming the impacts of the pandemic and disruptions in global supply chains, and it represents the shift of the world’s high-end offshore construction industry to China.
This is a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO), developed jointly by BP, Qidong COSCO Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Qidong COSCO Marine Engineering), and the international oil and gas engineering company TechnipFMC Energy. Once completed, it will be transported to the waters of West Africa to handle and transport local natural gas resources. According to the builders, this FPSO is capable of processing 500 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, enough to supply all households in Shanghai for two to three days. For BP, COSCO Shipping, or De Heus Energy, this giant FPSO is by no means a simple project. A relevant official from Qidong COSCO Offshore Engineering stated that the construction of this project demonstrates that the company has gained recognition from renowned international oil and gas operators. The successive delivery of domestic FPSO projects also reflects the shift in recent years in the focus of the global large-scale ship and FPSO manufacturing industry from South Korea and Singapore to China.
The rise of China’s FPSO industry: FPSOs are massive in size, and their construction involves complex processes. According to BP, for this FPSO being built, the two hull sections at the bow and stern are first constructed in a dock, after which it is towed to a closing dock for overall assembly. After completing the closing up and painting of the hull shell, the construction team proceeded with the subsequent construction tasks, lifting the assembled living areas and upper modules onto the hull. It is a combination of a marine factory and living area, equipped not only with oil and gas production and storage facilities but also with a central control room, cinema, staff cafeteria, dormitories, gym, and more. Qiu Ming, deputy general manager of Qidong COSCO Offshore and project director for the Tortue FPSO, said that to build a natural gas processing plant with a capacity of 500 million cubic feet on land, 1,200 mu of land would be required. This FPSO, however, concentrates the entire processing facility within a hull the size of two football fields; as a result, its technical requirements, processing processes, and safety standards are extremely high. The project incorporates many core technologies from BP, Technip Energies, and Qidong COSCO Offshore.
Starting in the 1970s, as global offshore oil exploration and extraction activities progressed into deeper waters, the market demand for floating production units increased steadily, and the FPSO industry gradually emerged as a result. The domestic FPSO industry started a bit later, but after years of development and effort to catch up, it now possesses the capability for end-to-end manufacturing, covering design, construction, commissioning, and operation management. In a paper published in \"Ship Engineering\" in December 2021, the team led by Huang Ji from the China Shipbuilding and Ocean Engineering Design and Research Institute noted that domestic design institutes and large shipbuilders are currently capable of handling the design and construction of the hull and upper modules of FPSOs. However, regarding a key component of FPSOs – the single-point mooring system – China still lacks the capability to design and construct such systems ； Furthermore, systems for tail gas treatment and inert gas generation are also in a state of absence or just in the initial stages in China. Huang Ji and others pointed out that as the international situation becomes increasingly complex, it has become urgent to increase the degree of localization of FPSOs, particularly to ensure self-sufficiency and control over key components and technologies.
In addition to meeting international standards, the construction of this project must also comply with the design requirements of world-class oil companies as well as stringent management standards, which are far higher than those applied to ordinary FPSO projects. On June 28 this year, 29 months after the launch of the FPSO project, it reached a significant safety milestone of ten million accident-free working hours. At present, the entire construction of the N999 FPSO has been completed, and it is now in the final testing phase; over 70% of this testing has already been done. It is expected to be delivered and put into use by the end of this year, after which it will be sent to Africa to carry out oil and gas operations. Alan Sedge, General Manager of BP Group’s GTA FPSO project, said: “The FPSO will eventually be delivered to the waters off Mauritania and Senegal in West Africa, where it will serve as a key component of the entire GTA natural gas terminal complex there.” BP chose Zhongyuan Marine because of their extensive experience in this field over the years, their emphasis on safety, and their strong ability to carry out such complex large-scale projects. ”