【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】1930–2023: Installation of China’s First Ultra-High Temperature and Pressure Gas Field Jacket Completed

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This post was last edited by Desert Fish on 2024-7-17 at 12:05. Safety first. Prevention first: Let’s praise and encourage the achievements in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment. **********************【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】Continuous updates and summaries are available; feel free to join the discussions at https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html (Source: Haichuan Chemical Engineering Forum) ***************** China’s first ultra-high temperature and pressure gas field jacket has been installed 2023-10-11 Amidst the waves, enthusiasm is on the rise. In the early hours of October 5, in the Yinggehai sea area, 113 kilometers away from Sanya City in Hainan Province, when the last steel pile, 123 meters long, was driven deep into the sediment at a depth of 103 meters, the new jacket for the Ledong 10-1 gas field stood firmly on the seabed like an anchor that stabilizes the sea. The Ledong 10-1 gas field is China’s first offshore ultra-high temperature and pressure gas field to be identified through intensive exploration efforts. Chang Huxing, general manager of the Engineering Construction Center of CNOOC Hainan Branch, explained that in accordance with a development strategy of \"overall planning, phased implementation, and preliminary testing,\" the project involves building a new unmanned wellhead platform, as well as laying an undersea gas pipeline and an undersea cable. Oil and gas processing as well as power supply are carried out by making full use of the Le Dong 22-1 central platform, which is the production field; the natural gas produced is then transported to the Le Dong 22-1 gas field, where it is mixed with the existing oil and gas before being sent to the Dongfang terminal for further processing and sale. “The jacket is the foundation of an offshore platform, used to support the upper structure, which is referred to as an offshore factory. ”Yu Faling, regional manager of the Qiongdongnan East Area at the Engineering Construction Center of CNOOC Hainan Branch, explained that the jacket for the Ledong 10-1 gas field is about 100 meters tall and weighs around 3,250 tons; the accompanying steel piles weigh approximately 4,050 tons. These structures are used to support the upper structure, which has a weight of over 1,900 tons, and they constitute key facilities for ensuring stable and increased production in the entire Ledong gas field area. This time, a construction method was adopted that involves horizontal construction, towing onto the ship, lifting it into the water, and stabilizing it by filling it with water. Starting from September 23, over 300 workers from across the country embarked on this arduous task. They gave up the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays to be with their families, and worked in shifts 24 hours a day, under heavy rain and scorching sun as well as amidst rough waves, to advance the project construction. Li Li, the crane operator with extensive lifting experience, was even more careful and thorough in this operation. The jacket, weighing around 3,250 tons, set a record for the largest lift carried out by the pipeline-laying crane \"Offshore Oil 201\"; the utilization rate of this crane exceeded 80%, which significantly increased the risks associated with lifting operations in harsh sea conditions. Compared to Li Li’s carefulness, Gu Haifeng, the team leader of the deck operations department, and his crew need to have the courage to face danger head-on. Due to the rivets connecting the crane’s pipe rack, manual intervention is required to open the pressure valve; as a result, workers must walk back and forth on the floating pipe rack to carry out the work one by one. The jacket kept rising and falling under the impact of the waves, with the water depth below reaching over 80 meters. “The construction area was during high tide, with the maximum surface water flow speed exceeding 6 knots, which is faster than the speed used in normal towing operations. ”He Shafeng, manager of the Quality, Health, Safety, and Environment Department at the Engineering Construction Center of CNOOC Hainan Branch, said that determining how to accurately position the jacket in the designated seabed area in the open seas was also a challenge encountered during the offshore installation of this jacket. Yu Faling explained that the successful installation of the jacket for the Ledong 10-1 gas field not only set records for the highest lifting weight of a structure by the \"Offshore Oil 201\" and the highest utilization rate of its lifting capacity, but it also demonstrated the feasibility of installing an impressed current cathodic protection system during the land-based horizontal construction phase of deep-water jackets. This experience has provided valuable insights for CNOOC’s subsequent construction and installation of deep-water jackets as well as for the development of ultra-high temperature and pressure gas fields.