【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Processing Equipment】Completion of the hull for Asia’s first new type of \"offshore oil and gas processing plant\" between 2011 and 2023

After 17 months of construction, the main structural framework of the Qingdao Offshore Engineering Equipment Manufacturing Base – a \"offshore oil and gas processing plant\" equipped with functions such as crude oil production, storage, and transportation – has been completed, and it has now entered the phase of final assembly and integration. “The Ocean Oil 122 is composed of a hull and functional modules on the deck; its maximum diameter is about 90 meters, the area of its main deck is equivalent to that of 13 standard basketball courts, its maximum displacement is 100,000 tons, and its maximum oil storage capacity is 60,000 tons. It can operate at sea continuously for 15 years without needing to return to a dock. Nie Jiaqiang, construction manager of CNOOC’s \"Offshore Oil 122\": The \"Offshore Oil 122\" features a new type of cylindrical structure design. Compared to traditional ship designs, it offers advantages such as reduced steel usage, better overall stability, and enhanced resistance to harsh sea conditions, thereby improving its economic viability. To cope with severe sea conditions, the hull of the \"Ocean Oil 122\" features a double-bottom design, consisting of 123 sections including 41 separate compartments, with a total weight of 27,000 tons. Since the hull sections are all of irregular shapes, the centers of gravity and installation processes of each section interact with one another; as a result, it is necessary to keep the tolerances on the main dimensions within 25 millimeters after the hull is assembled, which poses challenges in terms of space planning, the layout of equipment and pipelines, and precision control. Shu Wei, the general contractor in charge of CNOOC’s \"Offshore Oil 122\" project: The project team overcame a series of challenges, including the design of production equipment systems under typhoon conditions and high-precision construction. They mastered 8 key construction techniques, and by employing digital methods such as three-dimensional simulation, they achieved a 100% success rate in assembling the ship’s hull in just one attempt, with dimension tolerances of no more than 6 millimeters – a precision level that is among the highest in the world. “The Ocean Oil 122 will next enter the final assembly and integration phase; once completed next year, it will be deployed in the Liuhua oil field in the Pearl River Delta basin, offering a new option for the efficient development of deep-water oil and gas fields in China.