【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】2653–2025: Completion of the first pipeline installation in China’s largest offshore pipeline project in the Middle East

On August 25, with the precise connection of the submarine pipeline to the pre-installed underwater anchors, the laying of the first submarine pipeline for the Qatar RUYA EPCI09 project, which is under the general contracting of CNOOC Engineering, was officially commenced. This marks the full entry into the offshore construction phase of China’s largest submarine pipeline project in the Middle East. The RUYA EPCI09 project is located in the AI-Shaheen oil field area, about 70 kilometers northeast of Ras Al Khaimah in Qatar, with a maximum water depth of around 70 meters. The project includes the project management, detailed design, procurement, construction, transportation, installation, pre-commissioning, and related activities for 41 submarine pipelines and 9 composite submarine cables within the oil field area. Undersea pipelines are known as the “lifeline of offshore energy” and represent the core infrastructure for the development of marine oil and gas resources. The AI-Shaheen oil field is one of the largest and most complex oil fields in the world. The oil and gas extracted from the reservoirs are complex in composition, operate at high temperatures and pressures, and conventional submarine pipelines cannot meet the production requirements. The project team collaborated with domestic manufacturers to carry out research and development efforts aimed at enhancing product performance through technological upgrades; by optimizing chemical compositions, employing high-precision rolling techniques, and using advanced heat treatment processes, it was possible to meet the requirements for high strength and high toughness. At the same time, the project utilizes deep-sea long-lasting anti-corrosion coating technology developed independently in China, enabling it to meet the highest industry standards in terms of resistance to high temperatures, acidity, and fatigue; this ensures that the entire process of research, development, and manufacturing of underwater pipelines for transporting oil and gas under high temperature, pressure, and corrosive conditions is carried out using domestically produced materials ； Certified by international authoritative institutions, it ensures safe operation in the highly saline and corrosive environments of oil fields.

The submarine pipeline laid this time has a diameter of 12 inches and a wall thickness of 15.88 millimeters. Its structure consists of a steel pipe core, an anti-corrosion coating, and a cement coating. It can withstand a design pressure of 15.2 megapascals and is capable of transporting oil and gas at high temperatures of 80 degrees Celsius. The total length of the pipeline laid is approximately 12.5 kilometers. The operation area is located in a region with a high density of offshore oil and gas platforms; there are over 700 interference points, and the submarine pipelines form a complex network similar to a spider web. This poses significant challenges to engineering design, the capabilities of ship equipment, as well as offshore installation techniques. In response to complex routing conditions, the project team conducted extensive computational analyses on the suspension of submarine pipelines under various geological conditions, and carried out adaptive modifications to the key equipment on the main workship, the \"Offshore Oil 201\" ； By leveraging DGPS multi-system integration and redundant positioning algorithms, the precision of ship dynamic positioning is improved to the centimeter level. The project employs internationally advanced fully automatic GMAW welding technology, which effectively enhances the corrosion resistance and structural reliability of the welds between submarine pipelines, providing a solid foundation for the construction of such pipelines in extreme environments. Next, CNOOC Engineering will continue to strengthen its capabilities in international engineering EPC, providing high-quality \"engineering + products + services\" solutions for the entire oil and gas development lifecycle in the countries and regions along the Belt and Road Initiative, thereby encouraging more enterprises throughout the industrial chain to go global together.

It is understood that the Ruya project is the third-phase development project carried out by Qatar Energy for Qatar’s largest oil field, the Al-Shaheen offshore field. The Al-Shaheen oil field is located 80 kilometers off the coast of Qatar and is one of the fields with the largest crude oil reserves in the world. Commercial production began in 1994, and by 2007 the field’s daily production reached 300,000 barrels per day. Currently, the crude oil produced by the Al-Shaheen field accounts for about half of Qatar’s total production. The Ruya project involves drilling over 200 oil wells, installing a new centralized processing complex, nine remote wellhead platforms, and related pipelines. The project is expected to produce over 550 million barrels of oil over a period of 5 years, with initial production scheduled for 2027. Last January, Qatar Energy signed four EPCI contracts for the Ruya project, with a total value of $6 billion (approximately 42.842 billion yuan). These include EPC contracts for 9 wellhead platforms worth $2.1 billion, awarded to a consortium formed by McDermott Middle East and Qingdao Wuchuan McDermott Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd ； The $1.9 billion EPC contract for the central processing platform was awarded to a consortium formed by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries and McDermott Middle East ； The EPC contract for the $1.3 billion riser platform was awarded to Larsen & Toubro ； As well as an EPC contract for underwater pipelines and cables worth $900 million, awarded to CNOOC Engineering.